Another Moment
by Raven-moonwalker
Summary: [EdxWin AlxNoah] Sequel to Spur of the Moment and the FMA movie. You can’t spoil more than this, so look inside for a summary!
1. Chapter 1

**Another Moment.**

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_Struggling with her loss of both Elric brothers, Winry finally decides to take matters into her own hands. But how can she discover the truth without Alchemy?_

_Meanwhile._

_Ed, Al, and Noah, are having issues of their own. Traveling to Rome and trying to make a new life quickly gets pushed aside by odd feelings of energy that only Ed can sense._

_Feelings are flailing around right and left, and not even a psychic can sort them out._

_What happens when the answer could be the end to everything?_

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Hey folks, it's me again! Hope you'll like this one, because I put a little more effort into it than my last. Please let me know if it needs anything, and I'll be happy to edit. Towards the middle of the FF I start to go backwards and forwards a bit in the days. I tried to edit out anything really confusing, but just in case, I'm giving you a heads up. 

Anyways. Enjoy!

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**Declaimer:** I don't own this series, nor do I own the movie. But if the author makes a second movie and it's just like mine… I'm suing...

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**First Bit… **

* * *

"Winry?" 

She lifted her head from her desk, peeling off a few screws from her cheek before she answered Paninya "What?"

From the other room there was a distinct sigh, "I thought you might want to go into town and check on Will."

"Who?"

The sigh was louder this time without actually becoming a full on huff, "William Closick…" She waited a second, "The guy that was trying out the new auto mail."

Winry blinked a few times to wash away the fog of a restless nap, "Oh. Yeah, sure."

Paninya shook her head, she was hoping for more enthusiasm this time. Winry hadn't been doing much of anything lately, just moping around as if she were sleep walking half the time. When she wasn't dragging her feet across the floor aimlessly, she was making auto mail, she was making so much in fact, they were having to export some of their materials to other cities so they wouldn't run out of costumers. She had even started inventing new stuff because she was tired of making the same old thing.

It had been over a year since she had started working at Dominique's auto mail shop full time, she was even renting out a small building complex in town. She had enough money to afford at least a small house by now, but she wallowed in the self-pity of pretending to be poor. Whenever Paninya confronted her with it, she made the excuse that she was spending all of her money on food and extra parts for her personal collection. Paninya wasn't buying it. Winry had been acting this way for a while now, and everyone had just learned to work around it, because it would take no less than the threat of scalding hot spikes to make her confess what she was dwelling on. They had just learned to let her be.

Winry looked down at her desk as if it was the saddest thing she had ever seen. She wasn't that far off either, the thing was falling apart, scuffed, burnt, cluttered, she was surprised the cabinets still opened… actually… she was surprised it was still standing; it had over a hundred pounds of auto mail piled up on it, not including what was in the draws. But it was giving her a sadness of another kind. The same she woke up with every day upon seeing it; it was just a reminder of where she was, which reminded her of where she wasn't, which reminded her of why she had left, which in turn reminded her of the same damned thing everything time, every day.

It had been a year since Ed and Al had vanished again after such a short reunion. It had been three years before _that_, since she had seen Ed, and after all that time it seemed they had regressed back to their old relationship; bottled up, quiet, and just about ready to explode. They couldn't say anything to each other, both scared that it probably wouldn't last, just like last time. And now Al was gone too… he had been her only hope for getting Ed back in the first place, but now, how could he ever return? He said he would come back though… all those years ago, what was going to happen now?

She stood and stretched, letting her arms fall to her sides slowly. She lifted her left hand and rubbed the palm, it had become a ritual to touch the symbol whenever she was falling into a dark mood, which turned out to be nearly every day. Whenever her mind told her that it wouldn't bring her any closer to Ed, she usually pushed the thoughts away and remembered the day he had made the auto mail arm for her.

Paninya had been trying to make Winry forget about whatever it was she was obsessing about, and she had been going about it by trying to find her a nice guy to distract her with. Apparently 'Will' was that guy. Winry sighed… how much longer was she going to put up with this? She wasn't about to go rushing into the arms of any guy _any _time soon. She wasn't waiting for the next guy to cross her path; she was waiting for Ed's twin. She knotted her brow; it was just going to take a while to find him. Besides, he was plane B, plan A consisted of dying alone and depressed. Yep… that sounded right.

She couldn't keep doing this; she couldn't keep living like this. She had to do something, even if it wouldn't get her anywhere.

She walked out into the main office after spending almost an hour deciding about what she was going to pack. Did she really need all of her wrenches? Or just the oldest and the newest… along with the few in between for different size purposes? But she couldn't leave without that one she had used to dissect her first engine… was she even going to use them though? She laughed quietly to herself, using them was beside the point. The pliers were another matter… she had to have all of those, what person in their right mind would set out without a couple pairs of good pliers?

Winry looked at Paninya shyly, "Bye… I'll come back as soon as I can." she took a deep breath, hoping Paninya wouldn't notice how large her outcall bag was.

Outside the Valley was busy as usual, she had gotten used to the thrall of people a long time ago, and she actually liked it now. Seeing so many people with auto mail was always a plus.

She turned in the direction of the nearest train station. If Will needed help with his auto mail, he would have to go to the shop. And if he wanted_ her_ help, he would have to take a train to Central.

Once she was on the train, she cast an already tired gaze down the hall, she hadn't been able to get a window seat like she had wanted, but an isle was always nice.

What was she looking for? She guessed it didn't really matter. Whatever it was, even if she didn't find it, it would still be giving her something to do. Why was she going to Central? She shrugged to herself; it just seemed like the best place to start… maybe she could have a word with the military. About what? Nothing… Maybe she could say hi to Shesca? She dipped lower into her seat; she needed to find an Alchemist is what she needed to do.

* * *

"Ed?" 

He sat bolt upright from the uncomfortable bench he was on, "I'm up!"

"The train's coming…"

Ed rubbed his neck and looked to the uncertain face of Al, "What's up?"

"We're out of money…"

Oh, yeah. Well, it was bound to happen at some point, "maybe we can ask for work on the train,"

"…"

Ed let out a tired breath, "what?"

"Are you sure we're going the right way?"

Ed looked around the surrounding landscape, it was the same washed out, dismal land he had gotten used to over the years. Even Al was dressed appropriately in the drab clothes of this unimaginative universe. Ed had even gotten him to cut his hair! Making sure to state clearly that only he could pull it off, it didn't suit his brother. That was beside the point though, and even further from the question he had been asked.

"I think—"

"Is that the train?" Noah's voice sounded above and behind them, she was standing on one of the decks of the train station.

She sounded unusually happy, Ed hardly felt like telling her they were out of money, "Yeah… but we're not going to be on it unless we know how to wash dishes better than the people already working on the train."

Her face twisted up in confusion, "What are you talking about?"

"We're out of money."

She laughed, "Is that all?"

Ed and Al both turned to look at her clearly, Al was the first to actually say something, "All'? If we want to eat it's _something, _never mind getting on a train to nowhere,"

Food… Ed let his thoughts circle the word lustfully; he was beginning to miss it.

Noah let out an exasperated breath, "Just wait a second…" She turned in a flourish of skirt and the sound of a few bells. She had taken to wearing them around her ankles lately, and their jingling followed her heavy feet down the stairs and to their bench.

She drew a proud breath, "I happen to have at least some talents, and unlike you, I'm paid for mine." She waved a few marks in front of their faces, "I think it's about enough for three tickets and…" She counted the rest, "A muffin."

"One muffin?" Ed's voice wasn't hopeful.

"It'll have to be enough for a few hours. I might be able to make more money on the train, but I wouldn't want to risk it." She looked around nervously, people had been more accepting of Gypsies in the last few months, but there were still a great many people who just wished they would find another town to bother, "I think I might be able to dance at the next station… hopefully we'll get enough money to take us all the way to Rome."

One muffin… Ed mourned the loss of the others that never existed; it was going to be a long trip.

"Why are we going to Rome again?"

Would it be so bad if he just stole a muffin? I mean, how horrible would the loss be? It wouldn't even have to be a muffin! Maybe just a small piece of bread…

"Ed?" Al looked at his brother's contemplative face and waved a hand, "Did you hear what I said?"

Ed snapped out of it, "Oh, yes, yes. Rome. Wonderful place." He looked to Noah with a bright smile.

Al felt exhausted by this… Ed had been more and more inattentive lately, and it was starting to get a little tiring having to repeat everything he said, "Yes… but why are we going there?"

The train horn blared over whatever Ed was about to answer with. They picked up their drums (The only way they could help Noah get money) and boarded without being able to finish their conversation.

Al sighed behind Noah and Ed as they walked through the train. Wherever they were going, it was going to take a _long _time to get there.

* * *

Winry stumbled out of the train into the Central train station, and it took her another stagger, two lurches, and a trip to get her balance right. Some how she had managed to stuff her bag with enough tools to start her own auto mail shop, plus enough money to get her half way around the world, and a small section for clothes. She only ever wore two outfits, and her overalls were currently being used as padding for her bag so it didn't feel like she was carrying around a load of jagged stones. 

She looked around her without much hope. What was she doing here? She didn't want the military to be a part of anything she was doing, so why had they been the first thing she thought of when she thought of finding a way back to Ed? Probably because they were the only Alchemy link she had with him. She thought for a moment… there was their Teacher's family though; Izumi's husband might actually be more help than the entire alchemic army combined.

Winry let her shoulders slump forward. Well that had been a waste of money. She looked to the train schedule for the next one leaving to Dublith, 3:45pm. She looked to a clock in the station; she had about enough time to buy some lunch.

Winry's forehead connected with the window by her seat on the train. _Okay… so Central had just been a stop on the way… no problem… it's all part of the journey. _She snorted, why was she kidding herself? She was so scattered brained she couldn't even pick the right direction to go in. She wasn't someone who usually did spontaneous things, and she was learning quickly that she wasn't good at it either.

"Where you heading?" a kind breathy voice sounded across from her.

Winry looked over to the man sitting in the cabin with her, he was young, probably in his early twenties… short black hair, brown eyes, round welcoming face. He wasn't the worst person she could be sharing a cabin with, "I don't know…"

His brow rose, "Well if you're on the train, you must have some idea of where you're going."

Winry shrugged, "I could just like trains…" She looked back out the window, but she could still see the man shacking his head.

"Nobody who likes trains that much has enough money to go around wasting it on tickets to nowhere."

He was wrong about that of course, usually people who liked trains that much, were rich people who couldn't find any other better hobby, "What if I said I knew where I was going but I didn't know why?"

The man nodded in thought, "That I could believe, half the time I don't know why I'm doing anything…"

Winry laughed with a quiet breath, "Well at least you're not leaving a job you love, a comfortable home, friends, and family, to wander around the world aimlessly looking for something you're never going to find."

His eyebrows met at the middle, "No… can't say that I am. What, might I ask, are you looking for?" He sounded genuinely curious by now.

Winry pulled her eyes away from the grassy landscape, "Someone who vanished."

"Oh." He looked understanding, "Well I'm Edward Densing, and anyone willing to leave you without a word doesn't deserve to be looked for."

She almost wanted to laugh, 'Edward', if that wasn't irony, she didn't know what was. As for Mr. Densing's other comment, "Well I'm Winry Rockbell, and I'm sorry to say that you're wrong. The person I'm looking for deserves to be looked for, but just doesn't want to be found."

Edward smiled, "Oh? That doesn't sound very polite; chasing someone who doesn't want to be followed."

She crossed her arms, "well he's just going to have to deal with it. He has a bit of a hero complex, so he's naturally stubborn and unemotional…" She unfolded her arms and relaxed, "but I don't think he wants to be…" why was she telling this man all of this? She could have stopped talking at any point, but _no _she has to go on and spill her guts.

"If you ask me, I'd say you're just wasting your time and energy. You could be living a happy life it seems…"

She narrowed her eyes, "Well I'm _not _asking you." And that was the end of that conversation. No one was about to tell her what she ought to be doing.

She stood up abruptly, grabbed her bag (hardly flinching when it threatened to drag her down to the floor with it) and walked out of the cabin. There had to be an empty cabin somewhere on the train. Because there was no way in hell she was going to spend 11 hours traveling with that guy.

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_A/N RR would be fantastic! I love my readers, and I love to hear anything you have to say! _


	2. Chapter 2

**Declaimer: **I retract my last declaimer, after realizing that I would probably pay the Creator to make a sequel to the movie if she made it like mine!

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**Second Bit. **

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"—and _that's _why chicken is better than pork." Al finished triumphantly 

Both Noah and Ed slapped their faces.

"No one was arguing with you," Noah rolled her eyes

"Well someone has to talk about something!" Al defended himself

Ed whimpered, "Could you at least not talk about food?"

Al grumbled something under his breath. The one allowed muffin had come and gone in a matter of seconds upon getting on the train. And now… now they had another 2 hours before they reached the next train station where they could panhandle for some more money. The muffin hadn't even been blueberry.

Al leaned back and folded his arms, "If I can't talk about—"

"Don't even say it!" Ed growled.

Al snorted and considered saying it just to ruffle his brother's feathers, but realized he didn't want to hear it either, "Well if I can't talk about _it, _could you refresh my memory on why we're going to Rome?"

Noah straitened in her seat, "It was where I was born… it's the closest thing I have to a home. I thought maybe if we went back we might be able to find a place to settle down, maybe stop traveling."

Ed looked out the window of their cabin longingly. Stop traveling? What else would they do? It seemed gypsy blood was stronger in him and his brother than it was in Noah. Ed couldn't even imagine settling down anywhere, he didn't have anything close to a home on this world, so making everything his home was the only thing he could do. As for a job… what could he possibly do? The only thing he had ever been any good at was Alchemy. At least when he had been living with Alphonse Heiderich he had been making enough money for the both of them, but that was another Al… now all they had was Noah, and her talents to get them through the day with a lucky meal every now and then. She could sing, she could dance, and she could even give psychic readings to people who wanted them. But she shouldn't have to be supporting the both of them all the time.

There was a heavy coat of quiet that had settled over them. Everyone was thinking about the same thing. None of them had a place to go, so why were they even trying to find one?

Al briskly set his hands on his knees "Well, this sucks. I'm going to go look around… see if I can find any free food lying around." He levered himself up onto his feet and left the cabin without waiting for someone to say anything.

Noah looked down at her hands in her lap and breathed heavily, "This isn't what you want… is it?"

Ed puffed, he hated it when she did that, and she was always looking, prying into his emotions. She still hadn't found anything yet though, "No… but I can't have it any other way."

Her eyes sagged sadly, "You could try to be happy. I've been without a home my entire life; you learn to embrace the things you have. You have your brother at least, we could try to make a home together." She looked up, "Don't you want that?"

Ed peeled his eyes away from the window, "Yes… and no. I want it, but…I just." Grr! He could never say these things right, mainly because he just wanted to forget about his world, but no matter how hard he tried, it always found a way to squirm back into his mind.

Noah reached out a hand and touched his knee. She closed her eyes for a moment and then sighed deeply, "You do want all of this… but you don't want it here. Something is missing here…" she closed her eyes again, "It's not the feeling of home… you've began to like it here." She closed her eyes tighter, willing her mind to search deeper. But Ed brushed her hand off of his knee.

"It's my own problem. Not yours. Leave it alone… I'll be fine." He looked back out the window. He wasn't going to allow her to look that deep.

It was another five or so minutes before anyone said anything again. And it was Noah who broke the silence again.

"You can't go back."

Ed looked back at her, fighting annoyance, "I know, which is why I'm going to make myself happy here."

She shook her head, "You can't force yourself to be happy about anything; happiness has to come on its own."

"We'll see."

"Can't you be happy with me?"

Ed was taken aback by her comment, it set him off guard and he really didn't know what to say. What was she asking? Was she asking if he could be happy _around _her? If so, the answer was yes. Or was she asking if he could be happy _with _her? She said the word 'with' but that could mean a lot of things. He certainly didn't have the answer for that.

"I—"

Al walked in, practicing his new habit of grumbling, "Can you believe that they actually _throw_ _away _the food left on other people's plats? It's sickening! At a time like this, how could someone do something like that?" Al caught the look Ed and Noah were exchanging, and suddenly felt very uncomfortable, "Am I interrupting something?"

The two looked away from each other.

"No." Noah spoke softly.

* * *

"What do you mean 'no one is going to look for it?" Winry yelled at the train conductor. 

The plump and unimposing man was looking somewhat frightened of Winry at the moment, "I'm sorry miss, but whoever stole your bag isn't on the train anymore. They must have gotten off at the last train station."

"Can't you inform the police or something?" She couldn't _believe _this. She had gone to sleep for a few minutes, and she had woken up to see that her large brown leather bag, was missing. She looked up and down the train, ready to give whoever took it the full force of her wrath. But sometime while she had been asleep the train had stopped. And now her bag was gone! Everything. GONE! Money, screws, pliers, clothes, WRENCHES, everything!

"You know how it is, I could inform the police but by the time they catch the man he would have already sold everything in the bag. You can buy a ticket at the next stop to go back to the city and look for your things yourself, but I doubt it would be worth it."

Her nostrils flared, and her eyes grew dark, "Oh, it's worth it. Believe me." The problem? She didn't have any money for a ticket. But she could deal with that, "And to compensate for someone stealing my bag on _your _train, you're going to buy the ticket for me."

"But—"

She managed to tower over him; "You _are _going to buy the ticket for me."

"I think you need to calm—"

"Listen. You're either going to buy me a ticket to the last train station we stopped at, or you're going to pay me the $856.00 dollars I just had stolen from me. Your choice."

The man's eyes widened. Apparently he hadn't expected a number like that to be carried around carelessly. He nodded meekly.

Her brow rose.

"The ti-ticket…" he stumbled over the easy words.

She smiled brightly and let a wave of sparkles dance around her, "You're so kind." She looked around and smiled again, "how long till we reach the next stop?"

The man's hand trembled as he fumbled for his pocket watch, he flicked it open clumsily, "Ab-about an hour."

"Oh good." She clapped her hands together making the man jump a little, "I'll just come back here once we stop and you can get the ticket for me." She walked out of the room without waiting for the man to stutter around any more words.

Winry narrowed her eyes at the street around her. Okay, so far she had gotten on a train to the wrong place –a minor set back- and now she had lost her bag on the way to the right place, leaving her where? A town she didn't even know the name of. She was angry though, very angry. And if there was one thing that got her where she needed to go more than anything, it was her anger.

Looking on the bright side though, at least no one could rob her. She growled, somehow that only made her madder.

A man walked by her and she lifted a hand to stop him, "excuse me?"

"Yes?" His voice was rough and impatient.

"Do you know where any tool shops might be?"

The man looked at her like she must have hit her head on something hard, "Not from around here, are you?"

She shook her head wearily.

"Well… let's just say that it's hard to find a shop that doesn't sell tools around here."

Her face fell, "What?"

"Look, miss, I'm in a bit of hurry. Just look around, I'm sure you'll find what you're looking for." He shrugged her off, and walked away as fast as he could.

Winry ground her teeth. And looked at the signs around her.

**:Ben's Clockwork Emporium and Supplies:**

**:The Engineer club: **

**:Construction Supply, and Farming Equipment:**

**:Home, Garden, and Everything in Between: **

**:Toolry.** _Now offering sandwiches every Tuesday and Friday.: _

Winry's jaw dropped just enough to still let her eye twitch. Why did she have to be poor _now?_ And WHY had she never heard of this place before?

She took a few calming breaths. Okay… so this was going to be one of those needle-in-a-haystack situations. She could handle this.

Winry dragged her feet across the floor of the 50th store she had visited. Not only was she tired, but also she was just about ready to have a mental break down. She was definitely not a window shopper. Everything was starting to close too.

She drew herself up to the front counter and look at the woman with drooping eyes, "Excuse me… but did a man come in here earlier trying to sell tools to you?"

The woman thought for a moment, as if it was the single hardest thing she had ever done, "Maybe." She turned her head to the back of the shop, "Phil! Did anyone come in earlier trying to sell stuff?"

There was a grunt.

It must have meant something to the woman though, "Yes."

It took a moment for Winry to register the new word, "Do you remember what he looked like?" She already knew the answer, but still… it was worth a try, wasn't it?

"Just wait a second." the woman turned and walked into the backroom.

A man walked out a moment later, and sized Winry up, "What do you want?"

"I just want to know what the man looked like that tried to sell you the tools?"

She man chewed on something, and from his breath, it seemed that he had been chewing on it for a long time, "About this high," the man gestured about 4feet high, "Scruffy looking, missing a few teeth in the front."

Winry let her eyebrows dip, "A kid?"

The man chewed slowly a few times before answering with a grunt, Winry assumed it was a yes, and sighed. Great.

"Well… thanks."

She walked out of the shop, tired, and no longer caring. It was dark, she could look for the kid tomorrow. She fingered her skirt and pulled out a single wrench from a single inner pocket she had sewn in. She hugged it gratefully; at least she still had this one. It had been through a lot with her, it was her main clubbing wrench.

Walking along the deserted streets, she heard a quiet sound behind her; the sound of someone purposefully trying not to make any sound. She turned slowly and had just about enough time to see the silver glint of a large wrench heading towards her head before she blacked out.

* * *

Winry's head swam; it wasn't just a metaphor for how woozy she felt, but it literally felt like her brain was trying to sort itself out in her head by doing a few laps. Her body was impatient though, and wanted to help. A hand came up on it's own accord and made a crutch for her forehead. 

"Honey? Are you okay?"

Okay, those weren't the words she was expecting. They were just out of place enough to startle her eyes into opening. The face that greeted her was not the one she wanted to see either. It was Edward… Densing.

"What are you doing here?" Ow… why did her head hurt so much?

He laughed lightly, "I live here. Are you sure you're okay, that was quite a fall. It looked like you passed out for a second…" He sounded worried.

Fall? She couldn't really remember what had happened, but she was sure it didn't involve a fall. She decided to take in her surroundings. It looked like a quaint little dining room in a small apartment. Everything was a somewhat muted color though, like something had come and washed everything out. Even the flowers on the table looked dull. Where was she? All she knew was this wasn't where she had been.

"What am I doing here?"

Edward looked confused by that comment, "We were just about to go out for dinner… Honey, are you sure you're alright?"

"Why do you keep calling me honey?" she did _not _like that, and she really wasn't in the mood to play around.

"I always call you honey." He frowned, "Did you hit your head when you fell? Maybe you're forgetting things, do you remember your name?"

She almost wanted to laugh, "Winry Rockbell, and I'm FINE."

He swallowed, "No honey, it's Winry _Miller, _well… it'll be Winry Denner in a few months, but don't worry about that now. Here," He helped her up from the floor, and sat her down on one of the table chairs, "I'll get you some tea."

Winry's heart was beating a million miles an hour, what was happening. Everything was starting to scar her, everything was wrong. She knew the man she was talking to was the man she had met earlier on the train, but he looked a little different; looking at him bustling around the kitchen, he seemed taller, his hair was a little longer, and he was wearing glasses.

A steaming cup appeared in front of her a few minutes later. And when she went to pick it up with both of her hands, she came upon the worst realization. She had two hands! Two _real _hands.

Her stomach twisted, her head spun, her vision became tunneled. And the world blurred back into blackness.

* * *

"So!" Al spoke brightly, "Where are we…?" 

Noah looked around with searching eyes, "Everything looks so different…"

Ed let his shoulders sag, they had been in Rome all of 20 minutes, and somehow they had managed to loose themselves completely.

Noah looked close to tears, "I don't know what I'm looking for. Maybe we should just find a place to stay the night and look for work tomorrow…"

"And food." Ed added. He stopped walking abruptly as his whole body stiffened.

"Brother?"

What was that? He had never sensed anything before, instinct had always been his strong point, but if he had to explain what sensing something felt like, it would be this. It felt like something his thoughts were being drawn to something else.

"Brother?" Al asked again with more worry in his voice.

Ed's body loosened, "Can you feel that?"

Al looked around as if searching for what he was supposed to be feeling, "What?"

"It's like… I don't know. Something in the air changed, it felt… right…" the feeling was ebbing away though, he didn't want it to leave.

Noah reached out a hand to rest it on Ed's arm. She trembled, "No! Don't leave! Who are you?" Her eyes were blank; she was speaking Ed's thoughts.

Ed pulled his arm away from her as the feeling vanished like a gust of wind through his mind.

Noah's eyes were wide once they regained focus, "Why do you think it is someone?"

"I don't…" he didn't, it was true. But why had Noah said 'who' when she was channeling his thoughts?

Al looked between them, "Can anyone explain what just happened?"

Noah shrugged, "Something came and went, it was just a feeling. Energy works that way, you can't always tell where it's coming from, or what it is, but you know it's there."

Ed looked down in thought, yeah, that sounded right. But why would he be sensing energy? Wasn't that what Noah did? He looked to her, and found that she looked just as disturbed by the event as he was.

"Please sir! We have nowhere else to go!" Noah pleaded with the hundredth house they had come to that night. Wasn't anyone kind enough to offer a room to stay the night? They weren't even asking for food!

The man shook his head, "No wanders will come into this house." He crossed himself, "you bring bad luck just by standing at my threshold!" the door to his house slammed in their faces.

Al tried to look on the bright side, "Well it's a warm night; we can sleep outside."

Ed looked up and down the narrow street; there wasn't a light on in any of the houses, "Looks like we don't have much of a choice."

"I'm so hungry." Noah spoke so hopelessly; she was speaking simply to admit it to herself.

Al rested a comforting hand on her shoulder, "We'll find something tomorrow, don't worry."

She looked up at him with watering eyes, "Oh? You mean _I _will! I'm the one who has to dance, or sing, or give fortunes!" She spat angrily, before bursting into sobs, "This was a bad idea. I should have never taken you here! We cannot live like this."

Ed frantically searched for something to say, "We've only just gotten here, it will take us a while to get settled in, we shouldn't expect everything to fall into place immediately."

"I won't have the energy to dance or sing tomorrow. And what then? We'll starve without money!"

"Al and I will just have to get the food tomorrow then." He knew this was going to happen sooner or later, he wished he could have stopped it before it came to this though… they were always asking so much of her.

The only vacant, somewhat comfortable place in the entirety of Rome was a small cemetery on the outside of town. Ironically, it was also the most welcoming place they had come by during their time there so far.

Ed was the first to fall asleep, resting his head on his drum by Rosalina Ontalini 1756-1873. May she rest in peace.

Al and Noah were having more difficulty though.

Noah was trying to match her breathing to Ed's, hoping it might help her fall asleep easier, while Al was trying not to be distracted by the person he was sitting on, or over…. Above? He frowned; cemeteries always felt more alive than anywhere else, as if the people buried there were still breathing beneath the ground, just sleeping, and dreaming, unlike him.

"Al?" Noah whispered

He looked over to her with tired eyes, "Hmm?"

"What do you want?"

He looked down in thought, and then lifted his head to smile warmly, "I used to want so much, but now… I think I have everything." He wanted to say more, as he stared at her shadowed face, but he couldn't bring himself to, he doubted he ever would.

Her eyes fell sadly, they always seemed a little sad though, "You're not like your brother. There's still more he needs to be happy… I wish I could give it to him." She closed her eyes to glimpse into Ed's dreams, and drew her thoughts away when they showed her the same thing.

Al watched her, knowing what she was doing, "you love him, don't you?"

Her eyes shot up and widened.

"Don't look so shocked, I've known for a while." He sighed.

"Oh…" she swallowed, "Who is Winry?"

"Winry?" Al scratched his head, "Ed's mentioned Winry?"

She shook her head, "No, he dreams about her a lot though. He's happy in his dreams…"

Al took a deep breath, "She was an old friend, a close friend in our world. We had both known her since before I can remember; she was the closest thing we had to family after our mother died. She's also the one that made Ed's auto mail."

"Auto mail?"

"His fake arm and leg."

"He told me his father had made it for him…"

Al nodded, "That was when you first met him. Winry gave him new stuff when he came back that one day."

"A friend," Noah whispered to herself thoughtfully.

* * *

Winry woke up to the sound of beeping. She blinked a few times to see a white ceiling. She looked to the side to see a small table with a little white box on it. It must be the box that was beeping. She followed its wires to one of her arms, a white bandage covering up wherever the wires were connected to. She looked to her other side and saw a window. 

The only thing that was really clear about her surroundings was the fact that her head felt like it had been split open by a crowbar, she also knew for a fact that she was lying in a bed with white sheets. How she had gotten there, was another matter all together.

A woman quietly shifted into the room, and checked all of the little boxes and wires.

"Where am I?"

The woman looked startled, "You're up! Oh good! We were worried there… we thought you might have gone into a coma. Your heart rate had slowed down so much, seemed like you wouldn't be able to jump start it again. The doctor will be very happy to hear that you've woken up. We couldn't find any information on you, so we didn't know if there was anyone we should call."

Winry let the words wash over her like the gibberish they were, "What happened?"

The woman shook her head, "We were hoping you would be able to tell us. Someone found you in the streets yesterday night; your head was bleeding badly so they brought you here. Right here—" the woman pointed to the left side of Winry's head, "—is fractured in two places. You'll probably be dizzy for a few months on and off, and you'll have headaches on and off for a few years as well… I'm sorry to say that they may never go away. But at least you're alive! A blow to the head like that could kill anyone."

Winry lifted her auto mail hand up to feel the bandages around her head. When she brought her hand back down she starred at the symbol in her palm for a long time. The memory of something odd was coming back.

The woman shuffled her feet, "well, I'll just go and get the doctor then. He'll want to take a look at you, he'll be able to tell you if you can leave or not. I think we're going to have to keep you for another day though, to make sure you're past fainting… head injury victims often pass out. Is there anyone we can call for you? It would be shameful to let you out on the streets again without someone to look after you for a while."

Winry shook her head slowly, "There's no one anywhere close enough to matter. I'm trying to get to ­­­­­­­­­­Dublith but my money was stolen… that's why I'm here, I was looking for the person who stole it."

The woman tsked, "Oh dear, poor thing." She looked genuinely sorry that she couldn't fix any of Winry's problems, "Well, if there's anything I can do for you, just pick up the phone there—" she gestured to a small table on Winr's left, "—and dial 0, it'll call the front desk and I'll be able to come and help you. My name's Molly."

Winry smiled, she was not having a good day, "I'm Winry," Winry Miller… Had that been a dream? It seemed sickeningly real.

"Winry, is it?" The doctor leaned over her, checking her head. He was a friendly looking man, gray haired, tall, he wore glasses too.

Winry nodded.

"Well, it seems you're quite a lucky lady. Do you remember what happened to you?"

"Not really… but I think I'm starting to. Yesterday I was looking through all the tool shops trying to figure out who stole a bag of mine, it was late by the time I found what I was looking for. I remember leaving a shop, and that's it." Does waking up with a different name and someone to call you 'honey' count as remembering something?

He hummed over the machines around her, "well, it looks like someone gave you a pretty hard hit to the head. Do you know why anyone would want to do that to you?"

Winry shrugged, "Probably trying to rob me. Too bad he wasn't the first person to get to me…" Her eyes widened, and she looked around herself frantically, which only gave her a headache, "Was there a wrench with me when I came in?"

The doctor shook his head, "Nothing but the clothes you're wearing."

She felt like crying. That was the only thing she had left, and it had been taken away from her like everything else; painfully.

"See this box here?" The doctor pointed to the beeping white box.

"Yes."

"Every time your heart beets, it beeps with it, and right now it's telling me that your heart is beating healthily. Which means your blood is flowing well, and that should keep you from passing out. But I would still like to keep you here another day, just in case."

Great… another sidestep on her great aimless journey.

"Could I use the phone?"

"Yes, you can use the one there. If you need anything I'm sure Molly told you what to do."

Winry nodded again, and she was starting to wonder if it would be less painful just to say yes.

"Okay then, I'll just let you be, so you can make your call. I'll be back in an hour to check up on you again. Molly should be back before than to give you some things to do while you're here."

"Excuse me… what's the address for this hospital? I was wondering if I could have something sent here."

"Yes, of course, of course. Let me just write it down for you," He took a pen from his shirt and a small piece of paper with it, he scribbled for a moment before handing it to Winry.

She took it gratefully and picked up the phone as the doctor left. She dialed the number for Ed and Al's Teacher's house. Her husband picked up the phone.

"Hello. This is Winry Rockbell, I had a—"

"Winry! Wonderful to hear from you."

"How are you?"

"Good, good, as good as I can be. And you?"

Winry looked around her, and decided to lie, "Great! I was wondering if you could do a favor for me?"

"Yes, yes. Anything."

"I was wondering if Izumi had kept any old Alchemy books around, or if she had a diary? There's some information I need, and I don't know where else to get it."

There was a long pause, "there's nothing you would want out of those books."

So he did have them… "You don't have to worry. I'm not going to start practicing Alchemy or anything. I just had some extra time on my hands and I thought I could at least learn a few things about it. I just felt like it was time for me to learn about the one thing that was such an important part of Ed and Al's life…" Yep, that sounded innocent enough.

He sighed, "What books do you need?"

"All of them."

There was a cough on the other line, "I'll see what I can do."

"Could you send them to this address?" Winry recited the scribbling on the paper, hoping she was reading the writing right.

"I'll try. Be careful Winry."

"You don't have to worry about me."

There was a reluctant grunt before the line went dead.

Okay, so the journey had come to a bit of a halt, but she could at least bring the journey to her.

* * *

_A/N Weee! PLEASE tell me what you think! _


	3. Chapter 3

**Declaimer: **I wonder if I could send ideas to the writer?

(eeerrrrr. I don't own this)

* * *

**Third Bit. **

* * *

"Run!" Ed whispered urgently. And he took off like someone with a large gun was chasing him.

Al was a little slower, but he still managed to catch up. The two of them took a sharp turn down an alley, up a quiet street, through another alley, and between two houses before they finally stopped for breath.

"Why… are… we running?" Al breathed heavily.

Ed looked around suspiciously before reaching into his overcoat to bring out a large loaf of bread.

Al's eyes grew wide, "Brother! Did you steal that?"

"Sometimes, you have to do certain things so you don't have to do them again."

"I'm not going to eat that!"

Ed narrowed his eyes, "More for Noah and I then. We need to eat something so we can survive long enough to get a job."

Al looked down, how had it come to this?

They found Noah in the town square, trying her best to dance to a slow tune she was singing. She stopped and smiled when she saw them though.

Ed brought her aside before he showed her the bread. She took it from him without question. She was so hungry, she wouldn't have cared if he had to burn down a bakery in order to get it.

After eating nearly half of it, she took a deep breath, "I think I have enough energy to sing The Wandering Dream. Do you two remember the drum beats to it?"

That was the one thing they still carried with them. Two small drums, enough to accompany a lilting tune, or a vigorous dance, it was probably the thing that got them the most money. The Wandering Dream was always a big hit too, it sounded like Noah wanted to use up her energy before it faded away.

Ed and Al brought out their drums and found a small place to perform in an empty corner of the square.

Noah sung the first few foreign lines of the song before Ed and Al joined her with a fast passed rhythm. Within a few minutes, they had a small circle of people standing around them, swaying to the tune, and trying to follow Noah's complicated footwork.

The song ended with a clap and final stomp of the drums. A few people applauded, and a few more threw a couple of coins each at Noah's feet. She picked them up gracefully, and counted. She turned to the boys, "Looks like we have enough for a decent meal."

There was a collective sigh of relief. A few more performances and they might be able to sleep with the living tonight.

* * *

It had been two days since Winry had checked into the hospital, and after being told that she was free to leave, she asked if she might be able to help out as a nurse around the place until she figured out where she was going. It had been difficult, but in the end she had finally convinced them to let her stay for a while and help Molly.

She had nowhere else to go, so why not stay where she was? After she had a day to think about it, she had decided to let this journey take her where it wanted. And apparently, it wanted her here.

She shuffled slowly around an empty room, cleaning up after the last person to stay there. She was still fighting her dizziness, but as long as she didn't bend over it was okay. She still had the bandages around her head, the doctor informed her that they would have to stay on for another week in order to let the head heal, and she didn't mind.

The books should be arriving soon, possibly tomorrow. She would be getting them so soon because they were traveling on the trains, and being so close to the train station had its benefits.

To occupy her days, Winry had spent a lot of her time thinking and recalling the strange place she had gone while she was unconscious. She was always trying to figure out what it meant, if it was a dream, what was symbolic about it? She didn't want to think about the possibility of it not being a dream.

Winry Miller… soon to be Winry Denning. There was probably meaning in that. Did it mean she was supposed to get married to a guy named Miller or Denner? She really didn't like either option.

"Winry?" Molly walked up to her.

"Yes?" She was just finishing a checkup on a man who had broken his leg.

"Some packages have arrived for you."

"Packages?" Plural?

Molly led her out to the front entrance of the hospital. There were five large boxes stacked on top of each other, each addressed to her.

"Well… looks like he sent all the books." She laughed meekly.

It took her 20 minutes (with help) to bring all the heavy boxes into her room in the hospital. She asked for the rest of the day off so she could look through them. The hospital was mostly empty at the moment, so her help wasn't really needed. It was more just something for her to do at this point.

The first box she opened was advanced Alchemy theory. The second was more intermediate training, and the rest were information, history, and everything in between. And just like Winry had hoped, upon opening the first book, she found it was littered with Izumi's notes.

Winry sat down on the bed with the first book and started reading. Okay… time to figure out where Ed and Al disappeared to.

* * *

"Fish for table 3!"

Ed weaved through a few tables, picked up the two plates in the kitchen, and hurriedly drifted back through the restaurant. He smiled to the people at the table, "Fish. Enjoy!" he faded away before they could thank him, and ended up picking up a drink order at a table that wasn't even his to wait on.

Al (the busboy) walked past with a tray of dirty dishes in his hands, and Ed stopped him.

"Why did we agree to this again?"

Al sagged, "Because Noah thought it would be a good idea…"

Ed sighed, ah yes, he had to be reminded often, "And why isn't she working here?"

"Because she wanted to continue performing on the streets, because it's what she's good at" Al recited.

"Right." A hand lifted at a table, beckoning Ed to come and fix some problem with their order. Well, at least they weren't hungry anymore.

* * *

So what had she learned so far? Nothing really. She had learned that Equivalent Trade governed every law in Alchemy, but she also learned –from Izumi's notes- that it didn't really matter in the end. She had learned the fundamentals of drawing a circle and realigning the particles in a certain object to change it to a desired shape. You can't make something from nothing, the books said because of equivalent trade, but Izumi's notes said it had to do with there not being enough energy.

Winry had also learned, that human and animal transmutation was very, _very _bad. The thing she didn't understand about it though, was Izumi's notes on the matter. The books had gone on about all the problems of Human Transmutation, certain things about the soul and so forth. Izumi's notes however had said something about there being very little chance that you would actually bring the right soul back through the gate, along with her own questions on how to find the write soul. Winry had taken a pen and circled gate. That was the only thing that there was no information on. Seemed like the only person who used the term was Izumi, and a lot of help that did! Her notes were so vague; they might as well have been in another language.

There was another problem though; none of the books said anything about being able to use Alchemy without a circle. Ed had never told her before that that was a special talent.

Winry yawned; tomorrow… she would finish tomorrow.

Tomorrow came and went with much of the same; notes upon notes on things that made no sense. It was nearly midnight before she found anything worthwhile.

_:Note: If this is death… there must be something beyond the door, within is hell, but beyond… there must be something beyond._

Winry reread the note a few times, and then she read over the page it had been written on again. The book was talking about some obscure fact about using multiple circles to get different effects. It seemed like Izumi's note had just been a random thought she had wanted to get out at the moment. Was she talking about the gate?

Winry closed her eyes and thought hard, trying to remember everything that had happened the day Ed had returned for such a brief moment. Those flying vehicles looked like they had come out of some Alchemy circle. So how was that possible? The circle had to open up a door to another place… a gate. Had those people come from death? No… there wouldn't be ships in death.

There were always two sides to a door. If the door were inside and just leading to another room, from a certain perspective both sides of the door wouldn't look any different. So what did that mean? Life was the same thing as death and death was the same thing as life? No… she couldn't deal with that. So what if death _was _the door, and on either side of it was life? So what did _that _mean?

She shook her head a little to clear it of old thoughts. She needed a new perspective. What it _meant, _was that with enough power you might be able to get through death and come out the other side. But what was on the other side? She laughed quietly to herself, "Listen to you! You're thinking like a crazy person." She had to say it out loud to make it a reality. Well, crazy or not, this was Alchemy; it didn't have to make complete sense.

She lay down and closed the book; she needed to sleep on it. She couldn't sleep though. How could she when she was so close? Those ships came from somewhere, and that somewhere was where Ed and Al were now. The question though, was did you have to die in order to get there?

* * *

There was a festival in the streets tonight; every performer for miles had come, knowing the payoffs would be bigger and better than any other day. Ed, Al, and Noah hadn't been an exception. Currently in fact, Noah was dancing happily within a large circle of people, there were so many instruments floating around, she had a nearly 20 people joining her with music. Guitar played the melody, drums were a distant background, breathing for the dance, a few tambourines circulated through the crowd, and flutes trickled between everything.

Al watched the dance vividly; no matter how many times he saw it, he always loved it. In his world, he had never seen dancing like this, or heard music like this, and it surprised him every time.

Ed on the other hand was looking dreary as usual, caught up in his own thoughts of something completely unrelated to what was going on around him.

Al looked over to Ed and said goodbye to his happy mood, he couldn't very well let Ed continue on like that alone, "We're here now, enjoy the moment!" he decided to pep talk before he got into anything serious.

Ed tried a smile, but it didn't work, "I can't stop thinking about that feeling I had when we first got here. I haven't felt it again since then though."

Of course, leave it to Ed to get lost in some mystery, "Forget about it, if it's important, it'll happen again."

Ed was irritated by his brother's logic. He didn't want to forget it; it had felt so good to feel something like that, almost like feeling Alchemy.

Al decided to brush his brother's mood off and soak in the atmosphere again. It was a wonderful night, beautiful, there was no sense wasting it over stubbornness.

Ed followed Al's gaze back to Noah, it was nights like these that gave her energy. She could probably keep on dancing till morning if she wanted to. Al's eyes were changed though; they seemed to be taking in more than the festivities. It was enough to distract Ed for a moment from his thoughts even, almost enough to make him laugh slyly. Oh. Now _that _made sense.

"You like her, don't you?" Ed smirked at Al.

Once Al absorbed the words his eyes filled with panic, "W-what?"

Ed tilted his head in the general direction of Noah, "her…" hint, hint.

Al's blush reached his ears, "what are you talking about?"

Ed nodded and laughed, "Don't even bother,"

Al swallowed. Damn. This made things more complicated.

"And I would like my potatoes grilled, not boiled."

Ed nodded, finished writing down the order, and made sure there wasn't anything else they wanted before he left.

The day had been slow, like most days. There just weren't enough people willing to go out to eat in town; everyone thought it was too expensive. But still, it was really the best place to work, unless you wanted to board some ship and catch crabs all day.

Ed sat down at an empty table Al was cleaning off, and stretched, relaxing in the fact that he was getting paid for doing nothing at the moment.

"I think I might ask the manager for the rest of the day off, it doesn't look like he needs our help. Besides, when it gets like this he doesn't pay us."

Al wiped the table once more before sitting down with his brother, "yeah."

The bell on the door rang as a couple came in.

Ed's heart seemed to stop completely; his body froze in the shock of what he saw, or what he thought he was seeing, because it couldn't be true.

"Winry…?" He whispered.

Al's head shot up to look at the couple and the shock washed over him somewhat differently. It was just a sense of being startled, but reality intruded a moment later.

Ed stood up shaking, and Al stood up to stop him.

"It's not her Ed."

It was her! Her hair was short and curly, but it WAS her. Ed tried to push through his brother.

"No Ed. It's just her Reflection." That was what they had started to call the doubles of people from their world. Just a reflection of what they knew, nothing more.

Ed almost wanted to cry. He didn't care! It was still a part of her, something like her, _anything _like her would be better than nothing at all. Always in the back of his mind he had wondered where in this world Winry's Reflection was, and now, he had found her, he couldn't just let her pass by him like all the others.

Al used his height advantage to push his brother back down into his chair, "You can't! We agreed not to get involved with Reflections anymore. You think you know them, but you don't, they're a completely different person."

"But she's right there!"

Al continued to recite the agreement, "You can become friends with them as if they were a stranger, but you can never be emotionally involved with the idea of what they are in our world."

Ed stopped struggling. He couldn't do that; he couldn't _not _be emotionally involved. He was unemotional about everything else in his life, but this… he wasn't with this.

Ed stood up catching Al off guard, "I have to go, I can't wait on them."

He stormed out of the restaurant as fast as he could, without once glancing over at the reflection of Winry.

Once he was outside, he leaned against a wall for support. He couldn't do this… he couldn't stay here, knowing she lived somewhere in town, knowing he might have to serve her in the restaurant. He couldn't live with seeing her, and being teased by a mere reflection.

* * *

_A/N Much love to my readers! I would like to know who you are though, so please R/R! _


	4. Chapter 4

**Declaimer: **I'm getting really confused. I know I don't own any of the places or characters mentioned in this book… but I do own this idea if it is anything like the second movie? Hmmm… that doesn't sound right.

* * *

**Forth Bit. **

* * *

For the umpteenth time in the past few days Winry asked herself the same question, _what am I doing here? What am I trying to accomplish? _She could never get a straight answer, from herself or anyone else. Why was she looking through these old Alchemy books? What did she think she was going to find? The closest answer she had been able to come up with was a reason why… If she couldn't bring Ed back to her, than she was going to go to Ed. She couldn't answer the question of how she was going to manage that though. Even if she did discover a way, how could she ever leave everything she had ever known? It wasn't like making a decision to move somewhere new; it was making the decision of whether or not you wanted to live on Earth or the Moon.

She snapped the book shot in front of her after realizing she had read over three pages without actually registering what she was reading. She had to get her mind off of all this for a while, she needed to do something new, something distracting.

She slid her legs off of the bed she was perched on, and groaned irritably when a pile of books followed her legs and slid to the floor. Winry crouched down and started picking them up.

When she lifted herself up again to put the books back on the bed, her head spun like it usually did. But this time, the spinning didn't go away. It felt like her head was falling backwards as if something was pulling her away, she tried to compensate and tipped her head forward, which only worsened the problem. Then it felt like the floor shifted, making her lose her balance… she was out before she hit the ground.

Ugg… a headache, just like all her other ones. Winry had gotten used to waking up with them, but that didn't mean it was any better. Opening her eyes to an unfamiliar room probably wasn't a good sign either. Although, it didn't mean much, she could have passed out… the hospital staff had probably moved her to another room. There wasn't any beeping though, was _that_ a good sign?

She turned over and realized she was in a large bed; a soft blanket surrounding her, and a pillow she could lose herself in. The mattress was soft too, and she knew for a fact the hospital didn't have anything like it.

There was something familiar about everything though, that dull washed out look to even the most vibrant of things. The tunnel vision too, she remember that. It all brought back the memory of that dream she had had. She lifted her left arm to see, like before, that it was as real as it had been all those years ago. Winry traced her palm with her fingers somewhat mournfully, it felt good to feel again, but was it worth the loss of the one thing that had meaning in her life?

After waiting hesitantly for something dreadful to happen, Winry decided she might as well have a better look around. Everything felt so real.

She could feel her feet padding across the floor as she left the bedroom and wandered into the dinning room. She could feel the brushing of her silk nightgown against her thighs, as she moved to the nearest window. It looked like early morning, the streets were just waking up, and the smell of something like bread was floating through the air. Her eyes adjusted to her reflection in the window once she noticed something odd. Her eyes narrowed to see the vague image… it looked like her hair was short.

Winry turned around to look for a bathroom that might have a better mirror. She found a small washroom in the back of the house, and stood transfixed looking at her own reflection. Her face was the same, her eyes were still blue, but her hair… it was still blond, but now it bounced around her ears in curly little tendrils. She didn't mind the look, it was just different… surprising mostly.

She placed her hands on the sink and tried to sort everything out. What did this mean? Where was she? She couldn't bring herself to believe that it was anything more than a dream, how on earth could it be! But she had to face the reality that it was more real than most other things she had experienced. The color was off, her appearance was different, but besides that, there was nothing different about this than anything else. She was sure she had never thought like this, and considered things like this in any other dream before. Dreams were for being caught up in a completely different world and character of yourself, you never really remember the "real" you.

Winry walked back into the bedroom to try and find something to wear. There was nothing really appealing to her, so she settled for a long ruffled white skirt, and brown long-sleeved button up top, it wasn't the most comfortable thing, but it seemed like her only option.

She stepped outside onto the street tentatively, everything seemed so foreign, and she didn't really know what to do with herself. But whatever it was that was happening to her, seemed to be going on longer than before, so she planned to take full advantage of it. Maybe she could learn something from it.

The streets were filling fast; everyone seemed to be busy buying something, or trading something, or yelling about something. The houses were all so crooked together, like a painting almost, but more inviting. Winry almost felt like asking someone where she was… but thought better of it… what would the person think? How could she be in a town, and not know where she was?

She walked aimlessly through the streets, studying the stores with interest. The thoughts racing through the back of her mind were too hopeful to acknowledge. She didn't want to spoil the moment with blurting out what she thought might be happening, only to watch everything melt away around her, revealing itself as the dream it was.

* * *

"Ed?" Al asked worriedly, "Are you okay?" he thought momentarily that he had been asking that question a lot lately.

Ed reeled, trying to understand what his brother was asking him.

"Ed?" It was Noah this time.

He couldn't pay attention to either of them, he wanted to concentrate on this feeling, before it vanished just like before.

Noah reached out a hand to touch Ed and get a better perspective on what was happening. Her eyes closed and she trembled like before, the energy was strong! So strong; why couldn't she feel it herself?

She ignored Ed's thoughts on the matter, so she could inform Al on what was going on.

"Something is here… the energy is different than other things, it's what makes it stand out. It's intruding though…" She paused in her thoughts so she could catch up with the nuances in the sensation; "It has pushed something aside in order to fit here. But the thing it pushed aside… it should be stronger." One last tremor and she pulled away from Ed. She didn't like this, it wasn't right.

Ed stood stature still, trying to absorb as much of the feeling as he could. He didn't want it to go away, it was like the feeling of finding something you lost.

Al's brow knotted, "What does that mean?"

Noah shrugged, "It means something is here that shouldn't be here."

"Here? As in… this world?"

Noah nodded, "Yes, only closer than that. The energy is strong enough to make me believe it may be in Rome."

"So… what should we do about it?" after years of traveling with his brother, Al had somehow gotten it into his head, that every problem was their problem.

"There's nothing we can do…"

Ed smiled, "We could find it."

* * *

Damn, this blurry vision was really starting to make things difficult. Winry always kept tripping on things she couldn't really see, because looking down was a problem… her eyes just didn't seem to allow it. It felt like something else in her head kept trying to push her aside too, and whatever it was seemed to have other plans for her feet than she did.

She finally just sat down on a bench near a marble fountain. The sound was soothing, and let her thoughts clear for a moment. Could she say it? Could she even think it?

Her lips quivered, was she _there? _Had she died? Her head had certainly hurt more than it usually did before she had passed out. But the gate… wasn't she supposed to go through the gate? Wherever she was, it certainly felt like another world.

"Honey?"

The voice jolted her out of her thoughts. She looked up to see the confused face of Edward Densing… or was it Denner? Maybe it was something else altogether.

"What are you doing in town?"

She decided to play along, "I just felt like I needed some fresh air." She had forgotten about this, it was the one little fly in the ointment. If she was on the other side of the door, how was it that she seemed to have another whole life here? How was it… if she had never been here before, this man seemed to know her well enough to call her Honey?

Edward sighed, "The doctor said it was better that you didn't go out by yourself. After you fainted I thought you of all people would want to be careful."

Fainted? Was Winry Miller having the same problems as her?

"I just…" The all to familiar sensation of her brain being folded up and twisted around came back to her threefold. Her tunnel vision closed in until darkness gave way to a flash of light.

* * *

"Damn it!" Ed growled under is breath, it was gone. It faded just like before; the all too strange feeling, leaving him with a sense of loss. He hadn't even begun to start his search for where it was originating. Noah hadn't seemed too thrilled with the idea anyways, but that didn't matter, she wasn't the one feeling it.

"So what are we going to do now?" Al stretched, they were still idly standing around getting nowhere, and he was supposed to be at work a half hour ago.

"We wait…" It had lasted longer this time; maybe next time it would give them enough time to look for it.

Night was restless, each one of them sleeping in their own separate rooms at one of the inn's in town. They were trying to save for a small house, but Al didn't really believe this situation was going to last that long. They were all meant to travel; the idea of a home just seemed unnecessary. They still hadn't found what they were looking for. First it had been the atomic bomb… they had found that man, but it was too late, the knowledge had already seeped into the country, and all they could do was sit back and watch a world of war unfold around them. So what now? They didn't even have a purpose, and it seemed that Ed wanted to latch onto anything that might hold meaning, even if it –like everything else- got them nowhere.

Noah turned in bed, closed her eyes, and decided better of it. She couldn't sleep, not tonight; she had to check on something. She slipped out of the covers quietly, and tiptoed lightly out in the hall. She found herself in front of Ed's door as if her mind didn't really have much to do with the decision; no matter, it was where she had wanted to go anyways.

His door was open, like she knew it would be, there was nothing to lock it against in this town.

Noah stepped in and closed the door behind her with her breath held. But under the covers Ed didn't stir. She let out a determined breath, and padded to his bedside. She kneeled down on the floor, and lifted a delicate hand to brush her fingers against his cheek. She closed her eyes, and let the dream seep into her mind.

Everything was so vibrant! Noah had gotten used to the colors of Ed's dreams, and welcomed them with open arms. She never knew color could exist like this, and she often wondered if this was actually how Ed's world looked, or if it was just the exaggeration of dreams.

Like most of the time, she saw herself experiencing things through Ed's eyes. He was walking through a grassy countryside, rolling with small stonewalls, and speckled with trees every now and then. There was a river; he had been here before in other dreams. A girl was sitting next to him, resting her head on his shoulder; the same girl that was always in his dreams. Noah mused to herself that she would be tired of dreaming the same thing every night, but these dreams… they seemed to be the only thing that kept Ed going anymore.

The blond girl lifter her left hand, which glinted silver in the sun, and looked at the palm happily. There was a small red symbol in the center, and she could feel Ed lift his own hand to trace it. The metal of both their fingers tapped together. Noah felt guilty for looking in on such a personal moment, but she had to keep looking, if she couldn't dream herself tonight, she could always dream with Ed… whether he knew it or not.

The two turned to each other.

"I miss you," Ed whispered the thought more than he spoke the words.

The girl turned away.

"I didn't want to leave you…" it sounded like he was pleading for forgiveness.

"Then why did you? You said you would come back!" she still wouldn't look at him.

"I had to. Our world would have been in danger."

She finally looked into his eyes again, "Was it worth it?"

Noah opened her eyes to the dark hotel room. She couldn't watch anymore, what frightened her more than anything was Ed's answer. She knew what it was.

She curled down beside his bed and denied herself tears. Why couldn't she be the one worth it? Why couldn't she be the one he wanted to stay with?

Noah left the room in a withdrawn mood, she couldn't bear to keep seeing Ed like this, and knowing he would never notice her as more than just Noah.

She looked up and saw Al walking down the hall towards the bathrooms, looking groggy and unkempt. She ran to him and wrapped her arms around his middle, letting herself cry.

Al was so caught off guard by the embrace; it took him a moment to realize it wasn't some stranger tackling him in the hall. What was Noah doing awake this late? And why was she crying? He hugged her the best he could given the awkward position.

She sobbed lightly, "why can't he be happy here?"

Al frowned, "What happened?"

She sniffed, "I know I shouldn't, but I can't help myself when it's so easy." She paused for such a long time that Al was almost about to ask her again, "I looked into his dream."

Al was slowly waking up, "You what?"

Noah let go of him and rubbed her arms nervously, "I do it every once in a while, it's easy, all I have to do is touch his arm, or his face…" she bit her lip, "he's always dreaming about the same thing though," she laughed mirthlessly, "but I still can't stop."

Oh boy… this wasn't the type of problem he was used to helping people with. How could he possibly help with this? His feelings were too close to everything, and Noah's were somewhere else completely. Why is it, that even when Ed is emotionally millions of miles away, there was always someone waiting for him, or trying to draw him back? It wasn't fair… it was never fair. But dealing with it had become a habit; Ed was still his brother.

"You should understand that Ed had a lot more in our world than I did. He lost a lot more too. I was so young when everything happened to me, and all I ever needed was my brother… now that I'm with him again, I'm free to find other things, while Ed is still missing the things he had."

Noah nodded soberly, her eyes still tracing the lines of wood on the floor.

"You should go to bed. Don't worry about Ed, he'll be in this world some day." _Even though I'm here right now, _Al silently finished his sentence.

"But it's already been a year. I doubt he'll ever be completely here…"

Al shrugged, "Ed's a very single minded person, if he doesn't have something distracting him he'll stay with the same thoughts forever. He just needs something new to need."

She nodded again and looked up to Al, "Couldn't I give him something to need?"

Al strained against every instinct inside of him, "I don't know… do what you feel is right and see what happens." Why was he doing this? Why couldn't he just shut up and say that he really needed to go to the bathroom? Wasn't that what he had gotten out of bed to do in the first place?

Noah smiled weakly, "Thank you Al… for listening, you've always been so patient with me."

Al gave a sluggish nod; patient? How could he change the meaning of that definition?

"Goodnight Noah." He walked passed her without another word, he had to remember not to drink anything before bed anymore…

* * *

_A/N I still love you! _


	5. Chapter 5

**Declaimer: **Fine… I don't own the second FMA movie. But then… what happens to this if another movie is made!

* * *

**Fifth Bit. **

* * *

Winry moaned herself awake, only to find that she was once again in a startling white room with beeping in the background. She turned her head slightly so she could see the familiar machine that measured the beats of her heart. It was going slow… like it had been the first time she had woken up in this hospital.

She reached a weak hand out to the small table on her other side so she could pick up the phone and ring for Molly.

There was a click and a soothing "yes?"

"Molly?"

There was a sharp intake of breath.

"Winry! Oh dear. I'll be there in a second."

The line went dead.

A few minutes later Molly burst into the room looking worried and thankful at the same time.

"So what happened this time?" Winry wasn't hopeful.

Molly sighed, wondering if she should be the one to tell her, "We found you in your room just a little while ago, it looked like you must have fainted getting out of bed or something. We did a check on your head though; just to make sure everything was okay…" she paused.

"And…?" Winry coxed

Molly rubbed her fingers together; "We found a blood clot where your skull had been fractured. If we don't perform surgery it may become fatal. But the surgery is difficult, and new to us; your body might not be able to handle it either." She looked sad, sadder than Winry had ever seen her before, "You have to make a decision though. We can perform the surgery in two days to give you a chance, it's a risk, but it's also a chance. Or… we don't perform the surgery at all, and you live as long as your body lets you, which may be longer if the surgery doesn't work."

Winry looked down, basically she had a 1 in 3 chance of living… and all she had to decide was if she wanted to maybe live or die in two days, or live a few more months happily.

She swallowed, "I need to think for a while… could you tell the doctor to come back and see me in an hour?"

Molly tried to smile encouragingly before she left the room.

How had it come to _this? _Why couldn't she leave things well enough alone? She had had a life in Rush Valley, and now she was about to die?

She let her head fall into her hands, and for the first time in a long time, she let herself cry.

* * *

Ed found himself sitting in the cemetery they had staid at their first night in this town. He thought it was a befitting place for his thoughts; he was all but dead anyways. So what was he going to do? Leave Al and Noah here to live with each other as he went off in search of nothing?

He skulked down and starred at Antonio Gevili's gravestone. 1614-1658, he had died young. At this point, dying young didn't really sound all that bad.

He scowled… what he needed… what he needed was a bad guy. They always seemed to uncomplicated things. He could deal with bad guys, it was easy, you just had to go up against them, and know that the person left standing won. All you had to do was believe that what they were doing was wrong, and after that, everything just kind of slid into place. His life seemed to be full of bad guys, every time he tried to look back at a memory; they were usually the first thing he found. He had old memories of his mom, memories of Izumi, and of course, memories of Winry. But all those happy memories were even more painful than all the fighting. Mother: lost, Izumi: lost, Winry…lost. He never really wanted to have a relationship of any kind with anyone again; even friends came and went painfully.

Ed stood up. And now he wanted to leave the only relationships he had, especially the one he had fought nearly his whole life for, just because of a Reflection? He couldn't do that to himself… he couldn't do that to Al.

He walked out of the cemetery in much the same mood that he had walked into it. How was it, that there being no one to fight, only made things worse? He wondered what he might have done with his life if it hadn't gone down the path it had. Would he and Al still be living in Resembool or would they have gone to live in different towns from each other?

Ed walked miserably down the cobbled central street, it seemed like his whole life had been a complete waste, considering they were now back where they had started, or at least parallel to where they had started. They hadn't gained anything, but they lost a world.

Al popped up out of nowhere.

"Ed!" He ran up to his brother.

Blast, what voice was that again? It sounded like the 'I'm irritated but worried… probably a little angry too!' "What?" if it was some problem of some sort, he wasn't in the mood to hear it.

"I've been looking all over town for you!"

"If this is about work, I just didn't feel like—"

"Noah's missing."

Ed's lips were still opened from his unfinished sentence, but they stuck with confusion, "What are you talking about?"

Al rubbed his neck restlessly, "I can't find her anywhere, and she isn't at the Inn."

Ed shrugged, "If she doesn't come back by tonight we'll go look for her." Geeze, you would think she had been missing for a few days or something.

"I've already waited! The last time I saw her was the day before yesterday! I didn't want to tell you earlier because I thought you would worry…"

Slowly, Ed's attention grabbed hold of the words, chewed on them for bit, and smiled maliciously… there's always a bad guy. Had it really been a day since he had seen Noah? He hadn't even noticed, "Where did you last see her?"

Al blushed too lightly for Ed to notice, "We bumped into each other in the hall of the Inn, late at night."

"Did she say anything?"

"No." Nothing relevant to the situation at least. Unless she decided to run off because she felt unloved, but she seemed like the type that would stick around and work for it.

Well… time to get to work. Ed put his mind in the right place, "You start talking to people on the west side of town, I'll question some people around the east. We'll meet up in the square at--" He flicked open his pocket watch, 1:30pm, "--8:00 tonight"

Al nodded determinedly, and jogged off past Ed.

* * *

Tomorrow… it seemed so close. Winry ringed the already tangled sheets around her. She had decided that if she was going to die anyways, she might as well get it over with. Waiting for death would take away the will to live happily, knowing it didn't really matter that much. And if the surgery worked, she wouldn't have to worry… or wait.

For something to do, Winry picked up one of the scattered books around her bed, and started reading from the middle; something about gardening with Alchemy. The pages were yellow and old; in fact… it seemed like one of the oldest books in the bunch. Its oddness always made Winry happy; this was a book that could laugh at the rest. They were all so important and complicated, and yet this little book on gardening could hold over the rest of them that not only was it not as serious, but it had probably lived longer because of it. Winry liked that this book wasn't quite as offensive and arrogant as the rest. The others always seemed to make fun of the fact that they were smarter than her, while this book just wanted to teach her a kind lesson.

She sighed… this is what happens when you don't have other people to talk with, you start giving your books a personality, and getting offended when they tell you something you don't know, as if they were doing it just to piss you off.

:_Note: Do not perform on tulips… they prefer to try on their own.: _

She would have to remember that. (_Sarcasm)_

The pages crinkled as she turned them.

_:Note: In dying, these plants will only give energy to the others in the garden. Test with other Alchemy._

She would have to find the outcome of those tests.

She fumbled around the bed for Innovative Uses for Alchemy, found it, and flicked through the pages reading each note carefully. Towards the back she found what she was looking for.

_:Note: Killing a goldenseal flower before reconstructive Alchemy enhances power and cuts time in half. Substitute ivy for deconstructive purposes. _

Huh. There was something important in that. A lot of good it would do her though… she couldn't even perform Alchemy. She would just have to survive and learn it. Or die and learn it then. She sighed and threw the book to the ground, she didn't like her options.

* * *

Ed was nearly doubled over with the exhaustion of getting nowhere. It seemed every person he asked about Noah, knew less than the last. He wondered vaguely if Al was doing any better, but doubted even the idea. How was it that someone could just vanish so completely?

When Ed met up with Al in the square that night, Al looked like he was about to explode with worry. His hands twisted around each other restlessly, his eyes were stern and directed straight at Ed.

"What did you find?" Ed asked, not wanting to hear the answer.

Al's tension washed over Ed like a flood, "Someone said they saw her being helped onto a train yesterday. They were heading north." He was talking like there was a bomb involved or something.

"That could have been anyone…"

"It wasn't!" Al yelled, his emotions getting the better of him.

Ed sighed and rubbed the back of his head, "Guess we have a train to catch then."

Al's face fell into relief, and he smiled gratefully at his brother. He had been worried that Ed might not want to chase this lead.

"I'll get some money," Al turned towards their Inn.

"You want to leave tonight?"

Al nodded as if it wasn't even a question.

Ed blanched and slumped all the way over, "just checking…" he wasn't going to argue.

The train was quiet and nearly empty. Everything was dark except for one lonely lantern in every cabin.

Al sat watching out of his window, as if hoping to see Noah walking over the pitch-black landscape.

Ed was basking in the glow of his morbid luck. Did he really always want to be fighting and chasing something? Or was he just so used to it that it was the only thing that felt right anymore?

"So are we just going to stop at every town heading north and search it until we find Noah?" That sounded like a lifetime of work.

It took Al a moment to realize that that comment was directed at him, he shrugged, "I guess so. We just have to ask around until we find someone who's seen her."

"But we don't have a picture or anything," Ed was having conflicting emotions; he was almost glade for the extra challenge, but worried for what it meant.

"Well just have to work with what we have."

Ed shook his head, "Going further north will help her stand out more... her skin is so dark people should be able to pick her out of the crowd. But so many gypsies travel that way, it may be harder to tell."

Al looked back out the window, "Well just have to be specific."

There was a long pause before Ed spoke again, after giving his thoughts some time to wrap themselves around a depressing possibility, "Do you think…" He stopped himself, he didn't want to mention it to Al, but he felt he should anyways, "Do you think she may have left on her own?"

Al's head shot around to look at Ed, "What do you mean?"

Ed closed his eyes and let out a breath, "She may have wanted to keep traveling."

"She would have told us if she wanted to go."

"You never know…"

Al looked down, "she wouldn't have left."

"How can you be sure?"

Al looked up and gave Ed a venomous stare, "She wouldn't have left you."

Ed pulled back and felt more confused than he had been in a while, "What?"

Al shook his head exhaustedly, "Never mind…"

Ed didn't like being dismissed like that, "You're not saying that Noah—"

"I'm saying that Noah loved you, and you were too distracted by your own problems to notice."

Ed's lips thinned. Why would Noah be in love with him? He was always so far off in another world to be anything loveable! His eyes wandered to Al and he understood now, everything made just a little more sense, "I'm sorry."

Al went back to his previous sightseeing without replying.

The train rumbled on… somehow even quieter than it had been when they had boarded.

* * *

_A/N hate me? love me? I NEED TO KNOW! _


	6. Chapter 6

**Declaimer: **Blast… now I've gone and depressed myself. This FF will basically be nothing if another movie comes out. AND I don't own it.

* * *

**Sixth Bit. **

* * *

"Are you comfortable, Winry?"

Winry nodded to the doctor hovering over her as she sat reclined on a hard operating table, designed for brain surgery. This was it…. Pretty soon she would fall into unconsciousness; a nurse had already given her anesthesia, and it was getting harder to focus her eyes.

"Just a few more minutes and we should be able to start the procedure. You wont fall completely into unconsciousness because we need to keep you awake in order to work on your brain. Don't worry though, you won't feel a thing."

Winry swallowed. She didn't like the sound of being awake while they operated on her head.

She had enough attention to notice the doctor moving away from her vision to sit on a chair behind her.

She closed her eyes it would be over soon.

"Winry, dear, you need to keep your eyes open so we know you haven't fallen asleep. If you fall asleep it could cause some problems for the doctor."

"What kind of problems?'

"If you're asleep, your heart will pump differently, and it will change the blood flow to your brain. It will be harder not to sever any major blood veins."

_Note to self… don't ask anymore questions._

A few minutes passed and she still wasn't feeling anything, she was expecting at least a prick of some sort, "has he started?"

Molly was next to her, "Yes… now relax, it makes it easier."

Winry took a few deep breaths, and blinked as her eyes blurred again. It was getting harder to keep them open. She just needed to close them for a little.

"He's working on relieving the pressure of the clot now, only a little longer."

Just a little longer. Her eyes closed, she forced them open and they blurred.

"Doctor I think—"

Those were the last words Winy heard before she slipped away.

It was bright, brighter than she thought unconsciousness should be. Everything around her was a pale glowing yellow, the kind of light that soaked into you like sunlight.

It went on as far as she could see. There was no end to this bright world. Winry turned around and gasped. A solid stone gate loomed up before her, looking so out of place within the golden glow. She was almost frightened of it, it wasn't the sort of pleasant thing you expected in death.

Death?

She wasn't dead; she had just been sitting in the operation chair, everything had been going fine! Panic washed over like a quick breeze, followed only by sadness. Could she really find Ed if she was dead? Could she really pass through this ominous gate in order to get to him? Was he really on the other side?

Ethereal tears streamed down her cheeks. What if there was nothing passed those doors but her own death?

In front of the doors she watched entranced as a translucent figure shimmered into existence. It was a girl, about her age, with short blond hair.

The girl ran to the gates and pounded on them, "No!" She screamed.

What was going on?

The girl sagged down with sobs, and fell to her knees mumbling to herself, "Why?" She whispered, than louder, "Why, why, why?"

Winry walked up to her timidly.

The girl must have sensed her because her head shot up and she looked right at Winry. Confusion was only a fleeting emotion as shock took over both of them.

Winry stood completely still. It was her… it looked just like her! The hair was different… but everything else… everything was exactly the same. This was the body of the woman she had traveled into.

Winry Miller's eyes grew with fiery, "You! You're the one that has killed me!" She stood up, pointing an excusing finger into Winry's chest.

"What?" She backed away, still trying to figure out what was going on.

"I fell ill because of you!"

Winry shook her head, "I don't know what you're talking about!"

Winry Miller screamed, and clutched her heart, "What is happening?" She spoke in agony.

"I don't know." Winry looked down and at her own ghostly hands, "I think we're dying at the same time…" something bizarre was starting to make sense.

Miller's brow furrowed "At the same time? What do you mean?"

Winry looked up to the gates, were they opening? "I think we're just two worlds crossing paths."

Miller shook her head in confusion, "Why?"

Winry sighed, "Because I want to be in your world…"

She looked taken aback, "Why?" She asked again.

"Because someone I love his there…"

The gate creaked open and they both starred into the black wall of eyes with horror.

Winry looked to her double frantically, "I'm sorry." She was desperate though, and she wasn't going to let this opportunity slip past her. She grabbed Miller's arm and swung her away from the gate. She turned around and jumped headlong into the sea of eyes.

As the soulless spirits enveloped her, she saw the gate closing behind her and Miller running and reaching them too late. _I'm sorry… _She whispered to herself as she closed her eyes and embraced the pain of death.

* * *

Winry Miller opened her eyes to the sound of faint beeping. She turned her aching head over to see a small window. Ow.

What happened?

A rounding smiling face popped into her vision.

"You made it." Molly spoke so overflowing with happiness the words hardly seemed to express what she really wanted to say.

"Where?"

Worry etched over the woman's face, "here in the hospital. You gave us a little scare during the surgery though, your heart stopped for a moment, but the doctor was able to give it a jump start again with a little shock, and he finished without any more problems."

Surgery?

* * *

Ed and Al had stumbled tiredly in the next town over, having been unable to sleep on the train that night. They had been stumbling around for a while now without actually getting anywhere. They had managed to ask a few people if they had seen anyone who looked like Noah, but no one could give them any answers.

Currently they were sitting on a bench in the middle of town, trying to assess their situation.

Ed wasn't doing much assessing though, considering he was slumped over in sleep, and Al wasn't about to bother him.

He stirred himself awake. His strange senses were twitching, "Hmm…"

"Hmmm?" Al questioned.

Ed's eyes narrowed, trying to pinpoint his feelings, "Something happened."

"What?"

His senses weren't all that clear on that matter, but they certainly knew how to demand a direction, "I have to go back…"

"Where?"

"Rome."

Al didn't like the sound of that, "What are you talking about? We just got here!"

Ed's whole face seemed to be folding in with concentration, "I know. But I have to go back." He stood up.

Al jumped up to follow him, "Now?"

Ed gave a short nod.

"But…"

Ed turned to Al and managed a smile, "You stay here, look for Noah. You'll find her."

Al looked down. He had never done anything like this without Ed before.

"Don't worry. You love her… you'll be able to find her. She needs you, not me." Ed almost laughed, "She's just gotten us mixed up."

Al smiled hopefully.

"Come back when you find her." He turned back towards the train station and his senses flared again. He didn't need someone to fight… he just needed something to find.

* * *

Alone… he could do this. He had done it for nearly three years while Ed had been in this world without him. Then he had been driven by the need to find his brother, now he was driven by something almost as strong.

Al sized up the street in front of him. He had already gone to a few people walking the streets, but none of them could put a face to his description of Noah. He needed to question someone that would actually be paying attention to the people in the streets.

He turned to a small bakery out on the street; walked up to the man, and nodded a greeting "Excuse me. I'm looking for someone, she might have come this way."

The man snorted, "Unless she bought bread, I wouldn't remember her."

Maybe she had, "She's about this tall," Al lifted a hand about level with his own head, "Long dark brown hair. Dark skin… brown eyes…" his voice tapered off as it didn't seem like his description was ringing any bells.

The man shook his head, "You might want to ask the people at the train station, she might have staid the night and gotten on a train this morning."

Al nodded and thanked the man for his suggestion.

Back at the train station Al felt his hope ebbing away. If Noah had gone on to the next town, she would have just staid in the train. It seemed pointless to get off in some small village on the way.

He walked up to the ticket booth, "excuse me?"

The woman on the other side of the glass looked distracted by something else, she hadn't seen him come up.

"Excuse me?" Al asked louder.

The woman looked up and smiled, "City please?"

Al shook his head, "No, I don't want a ticket. I'm looking for someone who might have come into this town." He went over Noah's description again.

The woman wrinkled her brow in thought; "I might have seen her earlier with a tall man. Was she traveling with someone else?" the woman sounded overly cheery for the situation.

Al swallowed, "Maybe…"

"Well I can't pull up the records, but I can tell you that they staid here shortly and left late last night."

Al brightened, "Which way?"

"I believe the man bought two tickets to Cairo Egypt."

Al blanched.

"They're going to have to make a few stops on the way, and make a transfer," She looked to a schedule on the wall, "They'll have a two day delay in Spain while they wait for a boat to Morocco."

"Would I be able to make it to Spain before the end of their delay?"

The woman nodded happily, "Sure thing. So do you want a ticket to Spain or Egypt?"

"Spain." He would have to see what happened after that. Al only hoped he was going in the right direction, and hoped more that he had enough money to get him there.

* * *

Winry opened her eyes to a white ceiling and a strange chemical smell. Everything hurt, and her eyes were the worst. It was like she had never used them before. What worried her more was that she couldn't actually remember using them before.

A man jumped to her side and grasped her hand a moment later. The feeling was shocking after… after what?

"Winry… honey, are you feeling better?" he asked slowly and kindly.

Better than what? "Where am I?"

"In a hospital. Do you remember passing out?"

The question he should be asking, was if she remembered anything at all. She shook her head.

"That's okay… the doctor said you might not remember a few things. He said sometimes this happens to people if their have low blood pressure."

Low blood pressure? No… that wasn't her problem, "I'm sorry… but who are you?" at least she knew her name; he had called her Winry, hadn't he?

The mans eyes shook with tears and he squeezed her hand a little, "Honey, it's me, Edward."

Edward… she frowned. She at least knew she had memories she was forgetting, that had to count as something, didn't it? She knew what things were… she silently named a few of the things around the room to make sure. She knew she had mother and a father; she just couldn't put a face or name to them. She knew she was supposed to know the man in front of her, but she couldn't remember anything about him. Worse still… she didn't know herself.

It was an odd sort of panic that started to seep into her. It came slowly, like an idea of worry, as if her body was trying to figure out if this was all really bad. She knew it wasn't good, but she couldn't bring herself to say it was bad.

After the extended silence, Edward decided to start talking, "Don't worry, you'll be able to remember everything soon, this is probably just a side effect of fainting so much. I'll bring you home and take care of you, and you won't have to worry about anything but getting better."

Winry smiled, even without memory she knew this man was all she had. She would just have to trust him.

* * *

It was late by the time Ed got back to the Inn in Rome. His mind was reeling about whatever it was he was feeling. It was different from the other times; not quite as strong as before, not quite as enticing. It was just there… like a dull pain in the back of his mind, and it wasn't going away. He had to sleep though, or at least try to, he couldn't remember the last time he had had a good nights sleep.

There was a small piece of paper that drifted across the floor as he opened the door to his room. He picked it up and read the words in a trance.

_You're fired. _

He sighed, he should have figured. At least he had enough money for a few more nights in the Inn, probably enough time to get another job.

He collapsed into bed; he would have to deal with the feeling tomorrow… if it didn't fade away during the night.

* * *

_A/N Okay... now that was fun. _


	7. Chapter 7

**Declaimer: **Okay, I'm happy again. Basically, everything will be hunky dory if they make another movie, the world will be complete!

Who cares if I don't own it?

* * *

**Seventh Bit. **

* * *

Three days later Al found himself in Spain, hoping more than he had ever hoped that he had gotten there with time to spare. He wasn't about to waste any time either.

He practically jogged to every boarding house, in the town. He was having some problems though, because he didn't speak the language. And looking for someone without being able to ask the people around him, just made things all the more difficult.

After a few hours he started to feel like a stalker, peering through windows, waiting around outside of Inn's, hoping he might see Noah or some tall man, anything to let him know he was on the right track. He was starting to wish he had asked the woman in the ticket booth what the man had looked like that had been with Noah.

It was getting darker, and Al had yet to find anything. He figured he had at least another day to search though, and if not, he would just have to jump on the boat to Morocco, and chase them across Africa. He didn't really have the money for that though.

Al fished around in his pockets and found that he only really had enough money for something small to eat. He didn't really need to know a language to ask for something to eat, wasn't that universal?

He walked into a bar nervously; it was the only place open this late, and he hoped they had food.

He sat down at the bar and looked around himself, feeling very much like a mouse surrounded by cats, just waiting for someone to pounce on him. Why he felt that way, he didn't really know, but he decided to blame it on culture shock.

"Excuse me?" He lifted a hand to the bartender.

The man walked over, looking too tired to handle charades at the moment.

Al placed his money down on the table, and gestured eating soup. The man nodded and walked off.

Al let his shoulders fall forward, and let his situation sink in. He was in Spain… Spain! Looking for a needle in a haystack.

A man down the bar from him lifted his glass, "Thought I'd never meet another guy who spoke my language in here!" He laughed.

Al smiled, grateful to hear any words he could understand, "Same here."

The man got up and moved to the chair next to Al, "So, what're you doing in Spain?"

Al shrugged, "I don't really know."

The man nodded, "I hear you, that seems to be everyone's problem, doesn't it? No body knows what they're doing anymore…"

Well he knew what he was doing; he just didn't know how to go about doing it, "Yeah."

"Well," The man heaved a sigh and set down his empty glass, "It's getting late. Listen, if you need any answers, I might be able to help you. If you're into… alternative help that is." The man winked.

Al frowned, "what?"

The man leaned over and whispered behind his hand, "For a price, I have a fortune teller talented enough to answer your questions."

Al tried to keep his eyes from widening… _Noah. _He nodded discreetly to the man and grabbed his money. Soup would have to wait.

Al followed the man through the night streets to a small Inn he had waited outside of earlier that day. He took him upstairs to a corner room and sat him down in an uncomfortable chair in what seemed like the only area in the room other than the bathroom.

The man walked to the bathroom door and brought out a key to unlock it. A moment later he came out holding Noah in front of him by her arm. Her head was down, and she looked tired and weak.

When she looked up she couldn't help herself from going rigid with shock.

Al couldn't help himself from blurting out her name, as if to reassure himself she wasn't just his imagination.

The man looked between them, slowly starting to grasp what was happening, he jerked Noah's arm so she would look at him, "You know him?"

She bit her lip; she wasn't about to say anything.

The man opened the door to the bathroom again and threw her in, he then stormed up to Al, "I don't—"

Al's hand flew up on its own accord and punched the guy before his brain even realized what it had done. The man slumped to the floor, unable to finish his sentence.

Al shook the pain out of his hand from such a powerful blow, and ran to the bathroom door. The man must have locked the door quickly; Al kicked it open and heard a little peep of surprise from Noah.

"What are you doing here!" She sounded scared.

"Looking for you!" she didn't even look grateful!

Her eyes welled up with tears and she ran to him, holding him as tight as she could.

Surprised from the change in mood, Al really didn't know how to react.

"Where's Ed?" She blinked away the wetness from her eyes.

Al deflated, he had spent three days on a train worrying about her, he had just decked some guy he didn't even know, and she was asking about Ed? Figures.

"He had something else he had to do."

"Oh." She looked down, and then something started to dawn on her. She looked back up at Al, being this close to him; she felt something she had been too distracted to feel before, "Oh!" She let go of him and backed away, "I didn't know…" she rubbed her arms.

"Yeah…" Damned psychics, he was feeling really embarrassed now.

She smiled to the floor, why had she never noticed _that_ before? Had she really been so preoccupied with her thoughts on Ed not to feel Al's emotions? She looked up at him, "I'm ready to go home now."

"Me too… but I only have about enough money for half a ticket to the next town."

She smiled slyly, "I bet he has some money," She nodded towards the man on the floor who was just starting to moan himself back into consciousness.

* * *

"Should I bring out the letters or the pictures today?" Edward asked Winry as brightly as the last two days, while he served her a steaming cup of bland tea.

Winry stirred her tea, she was tired of all this. She had read dozens of letters she had apparently written to Edward a few years ago, and even more he had written to her. She had shuffled through a few brown and white pictures of herself and Edward together at various parties, and family reunions. Nothing was helping her memory, but it seemed to make Edward happy.

She didn't feel like reading though, "I think the pictures will be fine…" she couldn't take anymore of those letters anyways, they were all so full of love she didn't feel, she could hardly stomach it.

Edward appeared at her side with a small box, and started spreading out the pictures on the table, "This one…" He held up a small one of them holding each other in a dance, "I think this was at the spring festival last May, you were mad at me because I had you try shrimp… you were right though," He laughed, "You didn't like it."

Out of habit, a smile played across her face. Winry skimmed her hand across the various pictures, and traced the lines on one from six years ago; her hair had been long then. Winry's fingers traced the lines of her long braided hair; she liked it.

Edward shook his head, "I never understood why you cut it… just out of the blue one day you get up and cut it, saying something about putting the past behind you."

Nothing Edward said ever sounded right. She didn't feel like the kind of person that would want to forget the past, she felt that the past was important, even though she couldn't remember it at the moment; it was something to hold on to.

She let herself get distracted by the swirling of her tea for a while as she dwelled in her feelings.

Edward watched her for a moment before making up his mind, "Maybe we should go out today. It would be good for you to walk around town, you might see something you remember."

Winry didn't reply, she didn't feel like it was worth doing anything, but Edward was going to drag her outside whether she liked it or not.

* * *

"No, no! It's fold, fold, knead, roll. Not fold, roll, knead, fold!"

Ed felt like throwing the dough out the window at this point, it would be easier than actually preparing it for the oven, and people would probably be just as happy.

He smiled at the angry little woman at his side and repeated the kneading process until she was satisfied enough to walk away.

Ed didn't get it. It seemed like a hammer would accomplish the same thing at this point, and why was it that every bread had some different way of kneading it? Not for the first or last time, Ed questioned why he had decided to get a job at the bakery. It didn't help that he had had a headache perpetually for the past three days; he figured it was because of the 'Feeling', it still hadn't gone away, but he wasn't really sure if he wanted to find the source of it just yet. At least that was his excuse for not having a clue where to start. It wasn't as if he could just walk around town figuring out where it was the strongest, because it was just everywhere, no matter where he went it was never stronger or weaker than before.

Ed threw a ball of dough into a pan and chucked it in the stove. He hoped Al was having better luck in finding what he was looking for.

* * *

"So, what would you like m'lady?" Al tried an English accent and failed.

Noah giggled and answered in her own poor accent, as she peered over a menu "I believe, good sir, that I will be having the roast chicken breast,"

They both broke out in snickering laughter. They had ended up finding enough money for not only two full train tickets back to Rome, but at least four first class meals and anything else they wanted to eat along the way.

A young man came and took their orders, and left them to wait in the dining cart.

Al folded his hands on the table and took on a more serious attitude, "You still haven't told me what happened…"

Noah sighed.

"If you don't feel like telling me just yet, that's okay too," he looked down.

"No, you should know." Noah took on the distant look she usually wore when she was remembering something, "I was on a busy shop street, just finishing a ballad, when a woman came up to give me a few coins, I told her that she was pregnant. She was so happy, telling me she had been trying to have children for years." She paused for a long moment, "It was strange, but once everyone cleared away and I finish collecting, I hardly had time to open my mouth for another song before I felt a knife at my throat. That man you saw earlier, he told me if I was quiet and came with him, he wouldn't hurt me. No one took any notice of what was happening, so I really didn't have a choice. After he took me, I kept trying to find a time I could get away, but I hadn't eaten anything, and he wasn't about to feed me… I was just to weak to do anything." She smiled, "I'm glade you came for me…"

Al couldn't help but feel bad, "I'm sorry,"

"For what? It wasn't your fault."

"Ed and I shouldn't let you perform in the streets alone, it just isn't safe…" it was stupid is what it was.

She smiled again, "Well I'm fine now, and about to eat a wonderful meal. Seems to me that everything worked out."

Al could hardly take how she was looking on the bright side, but decided it was because she wanted to change the subject, and he wasn't going to stop her.

Later, in their own cabin, Al tilted his head against the window with a yawn, and Noah nodded off next to him.

"Maybe we should give ourselves different names… just until we reach Rome. And keep people away that might be looking for us" Al mused in a whisper.

Noah stretched and laughed light, "Something to match our accents?"

Al snorted, "Nothing matches our accent."

Noah yawned and curled up on the seat until she could rest her head on one of Al's legs, "I think I'll be Mrs. Connelly…" She closed her eyes and took a tired breath.

Al smiled, "Perhaps I should be Mr. Shillington then,"

"_Mr. Connelly…" _Noah mumbled so quietly at the verge of sleep that Al hardly caught what she said.

Hardly. He smiled. Mr. Connelly it is.

* * *

"Mr. Connelly?" Noah piped in an exhausted accent.

Al looked up from nearly walking on all fours, "Yes Mrs. Connelly?"

"If I might ask… how long to you believe it has been since we started walking this road?" she managed to moan every word.

Al looked up to the sun and blinked, "Three hours… give or take."

"And Mr. Connelly, how many carts have gone by since then?"

"None," Al whimpered.

She looked down, "oh… good than, I was hoping I wasn't going mad."

They had only been a town away from where they needed to go, when they realized that they might have had one too many steaks over the past two days. Now they were tired, hot, and walking down some deserted road in the middle of nowhere, hoping they were heading in the right direction.

Noah sighed and tried to straighten her back, "Do you think Ed's found what he was looking for?"

Al shrugged, "He never does, it seems like he's been looking for something my entire life."

Noah closed her eyes and smiled into the sun, "what do you think will happen if he never finds anything?"

"Eh… he'll live with it, he usually does. You just kind of get used to—" Al stopped as Noah fell flat on her face next to him. He jumped to her side in a moment, with all the energy of someone who hadn't just walked ten miles on an empty stomach. "Are you alright?"

Noah started laughing, "I'm fine. Just remind me not to walk with my eyes closed again…"

He joined in her good humor; it was nice to have something to laugh about.

Noah rolled over onto her back and closed her eyes again, "Lets rest for a minute."

Al heaved a weary breath with the idea, it sounded fantastic. He lay down in the middle of the road with her, and mimicked her posture; eyes closed, hands on his stomach. They stayed that way in silence for a while.

"You asleep?" Noah whispered.

"Mmmhmm"

"Me too…" She yawned.

"Do we have to get up?"

Noah wasted a shrug, "I was going to ask that."

There was another long pause.

"Do you hear that?" Noah spoke near to sleep.

"Sounds like wheels…" Al grumbled.

Pause.

"Would that mean there's a car coming?"

Al nodded, "Most likely."

"Shouldn't we get up?"

"Depends… if they run us over they may feel bad enough to give us a ride, if we get out of the way they might not see us." Al tried to figure out what would be better, and wondered about the odds of there being another car coming this way within the day.

"Do you think it's a big car?" Noah asked with reason.

"Eh…"

They waited as the sound grew louder.

Al grabbed Noah and rolled over until they were a tangled, laughing heap on the side of the road.

Noah looked up from Al's stomach and watched a farm car go by towing an open trailer with sheep. She scrambled up off of Al, and started running.

"I think we can catch it!" She yelled behind her as Al hurriedly tried to catch up.

Once he reached her, he grabbed her wrist and started pulling her forward a little fast.

They reached the back of the trailer in a few seconds and Al jumped up, dragging Noah up behind him. He fell backwards with the accelerated weight, and started to cough out his laughter as Noah stumbled over him and fell as well.

They couldn't seem to stop themselves laughing as a few sheep started to nibble at their clothes.

Noah rolled over to face Al, "Well Mr. Connelly… I think we did pretty good, what do you think?" she scrunched up her nose as she caught a whiff of a very distinct sheep smell.

Al mimicked her expression, "Better than my idea," he said cheerily.

"I rather enjoy not being road kill."

They broke out in another bought of laughter; at least until Noah was interrupted by a particularly offended sheep… she happened to be lying on the best patch of hay. She slid closer to Al in order to get out of its way.

"Hope you don't mind if I share your space, seems like we're intruding on lunch"

Al blushed, "It's just fine…"

Noah nodded nervously, picking up on the feelings of how 'fine' it really was.

"Marline!"

"What?"

Noah blinked and tried to focus on the face of a bearded man looming in front of her.

"Looks like two of our sheep have gone and turned into humans."

Al groaned and caught the sound of shuffling feet over gravel.

"I'll be damned! How do you think they got in there?" A round-faced woman leaned down to get a better look.

"Haven't got the faintest idea. How much do you think we could get for them in the market?"

The woman slapped him on the shoulder, "Don't be ridiculous. It didn't cost us anything to give them a ride… we won't go bothering with yelling at them." It sounded like she was reading her husbands mind, you could tell by the way his face fell and grumbled about when someone used something of yours without telling you was a perfect time to bother with some yelling.

Noah was still trying to get her head out of dream, when Al's voiced seemed to vibrate just under her head.

"Where are we?"

Noah blinked a few more times until she came to the conclusion that she was lying on Al. Oh dear… She tried to slowly move off of him without drawing much attention to herself.

She watched the mans mouth drop, and open and close a few times before he spat out his next words, "No respect! Not even a thank you!"

The woman with him hushed him, "We're about 10 miles outside of Rome. It's a market day so we're going to sell a few of our sheep. If you're going to there, you're going to get off here, we're going to a different town."

Al worked his way up and out of the trailer, and helped Noah out as well. He beamed at the couple, "Thanks for the ride!"

The old man narrowed his eyes, "Any time." Meaning if he ever saw them in his trailer uninvited again he would be selling them in the market with the rest of his livestock.

Al and Noah both walked away like crabs, nervously trying to be polite. When they felt they were far enough away, they broke into a run; slowing down only once they reached the road they would be traveling on.

Al decided to break 10 minutes of silence, "I don't know about you, but I would take that over a train any day…"

Noah tried to keep herself from smiling, and bit her lips. Which only made her snort.

"Should it really be this dark already?" Noah looked up to the grey sky.

Al Squinted, "We've been walking for a while, it's should be late… but." He squinted more, "Do those look like rain clouds to you?"

On cue the sky opened up with a gurgle of thunder before letting out a sea's worth of cold rain.

With their hair already plated to their foreheads, they both shrugged before running for cover on the side of a small cabin by the side of the road. The roof overhang wasn't much, but it kept most of the wet away.

A few minutes later Noah started to shake with cold, and Al started to rub her arms. With his jacket he had kept dryer, but all Noah had was a thin shawl, a white spring shirt, and a skirt.

She started to sniff and looked down, "I'm becoming more trouble than I'm worth…" She laughed mirthlessly.

Al stopped rubbing her arms but kept his hands where they were, "What are you talking about?" he lifted his brow.

She didn't want to look at him, "I've cost you all of your money, and I've sent you on an exhausting trip trying to get me back home. That's not including when I made you come to Rome."

He shook her a little to straighten her up and make her look at him, "All of those things have been completely my own decisions. If you weren't worth it, I wouldn't have spent the money, and I wouldn't have come."

She rolled her eyes, "That's just your misdirected loyalty talking, no one does things like that for me unless they have to."

Al shook his head, "No it isn't."

She shook her own head.

"It isn't."

She sighed

Al heaved his own exhausted sigh; it was like arguing with a wall, the only thing that ever got its attention was a demolition ball.

Al leaned in and kissed her softly.

Noah went completely rigid, as Al's emotions flooded into her. Once she processed all of them, she couldn't stop herself from returning the gesture.

With the permission Al deepened the kiss until she was basically pinned to the wall.

"Ahem…"

Both Al and Noah jumped noticeably, and detached themselves as quickly as they could, trying to look as nonchalant as they good. Blushing as much as they were, it really didn't matter much.

They starred embarrassedly at the feet of a woman who looked about 30, with long black hair, and an amused smile.

"I was going to offer you a place out of the rain, but you seem to be fine."

Al rubbed the back of his head, "Well… I think… I mean—"

"A place to stay would be wonderful!" Noah chocked gratefully.

The woman nodded and laughed lightly as she turned around, "Follow me, I was just finishing up some soup for the weather. Your welcomed to have some."

They followed quietly. Still quite distracted by the moment before.

* * *

_A/N YEEeeesss! The BEST chapter yet! At least in my opinion... because it was SOOO fun to write. _


	8. Chapter 8

**Declaimer: **Ah… the world is a happy place. Another movie may or may not be coming out; I don't own this (I've finished it though!), and I have a great job… but that's a completely unrelated subject…

* * *

**Eighth Bit. **

* * *

"I'm sorry…" Winry whispered.

"For what?" Edward smiled forgivingly.

Winry shook her head, "I can't stay with you,"

His smile dropped, "What? Why?"

"You love me… don't you?"

He smiled I grabbed her hands across the dinner table; they had decided to go out to one of her _favorite _restaurants for the third night in a row, "Of course I love you!"

She sighed and couldn't bring herself to look him in the eyes, "You don't though. You love someone that's been forgotten."

"That doesn't matter! You're still you, and I love any part of you,"

Winry liked the words, but they didn't change anything, "even if that's true. I don't think…" She swallowed, "I don't think I can love you." She couldn't even take being around him, even though he was all she had; she couldn't take the fact that he loved her for all the things and moments she couldn't remember.

Edward's smile fell completely into a frown and he pulled his hands away from hers, "But, haven't I made you happy?"

She finally worked up the courage to look at him, and it nearly broke her heart, "I don't even know you!"

"Yes, yes you do! You just have to remember,"

"I need to find my memories on my own. Maybe one day, I'll find them and I'll come back to you. But I think… I think for a while I need to make new memories." She didn't even want to remember anymore, she just wanted to have a new life.

Edward nodded, secure in the fact that she would come back one day.

Winry stood, "Thank you for everything you've done for me," her eyes smiled sadly "I wish I could be the person you remember."

"I love you,"

"And I'll remember that." She cast him one last mournful glance before turning and walking out of the restaurant into a narrow moonlit street.

As she walked and listened to the soft sound of her feet, she let herself cry in the deserted pathway. _Stupid, stupid, stupid! _Now she was alone in a town she couldn't remember, she had no money, and she couldn't even remember her last name. What was she supposed to accomplish by leaving Edward? She figured it was freedom… the freedom to not have to remember anything. She just wanted to be who she was right now; she didn't want to become the person she had been, even though she didn't even know who that was.

She stopped and leaned against a stone building, letting herself crumble to the ground. She needed to think.

She burst into tears; everything was wrong!

A door slammed somewhere down the street, startling her out of her sobs. She listened intently, grateful for the distraction.

"I don't even like bread!" a voice yelled

A window creaked open, "And don't expect to get paid for your work!"

"Well don't expect me to be a customer any time in the future!"

The window slammed somehow louder than the door.

Winry tried to peer around the corner to see what was going on, but only heard angered grumbling.

She curled back in on herself and sniffed, why was she even bothering? It wasn't any of her business.

Winry tried to shake her head of the tears, and decided she needed to keep moving, if she didn't, she just might not be able to get up.

She started wandering through the streets aimlessly, she just needed to do something to clear her mind, and walking seemed to be doing the trick. Up one street, down another, through a narrow alley, she started to anticipate where she would end up.

The street opened up to a grassy field, speckled by trees here and there. Her shoulders fell forward, and her emotions came back… a cemetery; she should have guessed. She walked into it nonetheless, if this is where her path took her, she was going to stay the night. She was as good as dead anyways, it would be nice company.

Through the pathways of small crumbling headstones Winry headed towards an inviting tree. When she reached it, she slid down the trunk and propped her arms up on her knees. This was a nice cemetery, not what you'd expect. With the bright moon overhead, it lit everything up, and made it almost festive. The night was warm, calming, welcoming… so why was she still so sad?

A few more tears slid down her cheeks; well, tonight would just have to be a night of mourning.

Ed walked down the dark street with his jacket over his shoulder; he was _not _having a good day.

He rubbed the bridge of his nose as his headache throbbed, what was he going to do now? He was broke, hungry, and plagued by useless feelings that only made is situation worse.

Where else could he get a job? His options were running out.

He fished around in his pockets and brought out enough money for a few meals, and he decided eating was more important than sleeping in a comfortable bed. At least the night was warm enough. He would just spend it where he had spent the first night with Al and Noah. The thought made him smile, it almost sounded better than an Inn.

Ed weaved around the tombstones trying to catch names as he passed; he wanted to sleep with someone who sounded like a nice person, or maybe someone who was lonely. He started trying to pick out dates, if the person had died young; maybe they might want more company than the older ones… or was it the other way around? He sighed; this was stupid.

His ears perked up as he heard someone cough and hiccup a small cry. Okay… that was a little scary. But he had to be practical. He started looking for someone else who might be in the cemetery with him.

After walking around for a few minutes without any luck, he finally saw a small figured sitting against a tree, trying to hide sobs in her arm.

He frowned when he saw her, he knew who she was. He shook his head, _just a reflection _he repeated to himself unconvincingly; he couldn't just leave her there alone though.

He walked up to her with a sigh, and looked to the sky, as if hoping it would tell him why he was bothering, "Are you okay?"

Winry started and let her eyes shoot up to Ed's face. Her heart started to race, her eyes widened. That was an interesting feeling… like the mixture of fear and curiosity.

"Sorry… I just heard you crying and I thought you might…" He stopped, "Never mind, I'll leave you alone."

Her hand shot up, "Wait!" she stood up so she could come level to his eyes, and starred at them for a long moment, trying to pick them out of the shadows.

_Thump_

_Thump_

She put a hand to her chest.

Suddenly it felt like she was being pulled backwards through a very small hole. Her mind raced and tried to get a hold of a lifetime's worth of memories. They hit hard and fast and left her panting, "Oh god!" it hurt, everything hurt! Her head spun, her eyes crossed, everything was upside down and backwards. Everything smelled wrong, felt wrong, looked wrong, and as she grasped where she was and how she had gotten there, she fought of the need to faint; she teetered forward.

Ed grabbed her shoulders to keep her from falling, "You don't look to good, do you live near by?"

Winry looked up, and started crying a different kind of tear, letting out so much bottled up emotion she had no place for it, "Ed?"

She could almost hear his heart stop.

"What?" his voice quivered.

Her whole body shook, she felt like exploding with happiness, it came so fast she couldn't hold it in. She tackled him and held on as they both stumbled to the ground.

"Ed!" She kissed his cheek, "Ed… Ed… Ed…. Ed." Between each mumbled 'Ed' she kissed another part of his face. She wasn't going to waste these overflowing emotions on a reserved hug.

Ed was too shocked to move, his mind was having problems processing what was happening. Finally he blinked, looked up at Winry, and opened and shut his mouth a few times, "Wi---nrY?" He chocked.

She bit her lip and nodded, "Winry Rockbell," she let the name wash over her, and closed her eyes, yes… that was right.

Headache gone, Ed took a moment to grasp what was going on. How, in _any _world, was that possible? His thoughts cackled, who the hell cared?

He lifted his automail hand up, weaved it through Winry's hair, and pulled himself up to kiss her as if she would melt away at any moment.

He opened his eyes slowly a moment later after the kiss; would she still be there?

A few of her tears splashed down coolly onto his cheek, still there.

He smiled, rolled over, placed his hands on either side of her, and leaned down to kiss her stronger this time.

Winry gasped and laughed, now _this _was a greeting.

He looked down at her as his whole world imploded around him until it didn't exist anymore, and started to hurriedly rebuild itself around this new and wonderful experience.

"How…" he sighed, "Did you get here?"

She wiped away a few warm tears and puffed out a laugh at the world, "I'll tell you once you get off me… you're… kind of heavy."

He smirked and rolled to the side.

Well now he was too far away. Winry rolled over and half onto his chest, "I think…" She closed her eyes, "I think I died."

* * *

"It's far too late for you two to leave now, you might as well stay the night. We have an extra room upstairs if you like."

Al and Noah sat around a small fire, having finished dinner only a little while ago. They looked to each other with the question, Al decided to answer it "You've already been so kind we couldn't really imagine taking advantage of it more."

Noah looked down with sigh; it was going to be a long night.

Mary caught the sigh, "Your clothes aren't even completely dry yet, and staying the night won't make a bit of difference to John and I."

Her husband nodded with a smile.

Al looked to Noah and saw her look, "in that case, we would love to stay."

She clasped her hands, "Wonderful! I'll just go up and set up the room…" She jumped out of her chair and hurried up the small flight of stairs to the second story.

A few minutes later she called them up.

Mary glowed in the room, "Hope you like it," She swished her way passed the two of them and pushed them through the door, "Good night." She closed the door behind them.

They booth blushed when they saw the single bed. To cover the tension though, Al quickly picked up where they had left off.

They rolled over the bed and off the other side, laughing.

"Okay, okay" Noah gasped, "We should sleep."

Al pouted, "Fine…"

She shook her head with amusement and gave him one more kiss before jumping into the bed.

Mary and John both looked up when they heard the thump of two bodies hitting the floor.

John rolled his eyes while Mary smiled joyfully, "They seem like a sweet couple."

* * *

"Don't you two know it's unlucky to sleep with the dead?" A rasped voice crocked waking Ed and Winry up to a harshly bright morning.

Winry tried to close her eyes and will the man away. It didn't work.

"Nope… no good at all. Messes with the digestion."

Ed tried to roll over but couldn't since Winry was still on top of him, "Don't you know it's unlucky to wake the resting while they're with the dead?" he growled.

The man quickly ushered himself away, knowing that you didn't want to mess with a guy with a tone of voice like that this early in the morning.

Winry laughed quietly through a smile, "That wasn't too nice."

Ed smirked, "You didn't want him hanging around, did you?"

Winry was quiet.

Ed put some more effort into rolling over to reverse the role of who was on top of whom, "Did you?" he asked again playfully.

She squirmed and gave up, "No…" she kept herself from smiling.

"Good." Ed beamed, "Now what do you think we should do today?"

They had stayed up until the wee hours of the night filling each other in on everything that had happened in the time they hadn't seen each other, and Ed had had to spend even more time trying to explain to Winry where she was now. He had to get her to understand that it was a little more complicated than simply being dead.

She tried to shrug, but it was difficult given her position, "anything… it doesn't matter." She thought for a moment, "Are there any mechanics shops around here?"

Ed tried to keep from rolling his eyes. Leave it to Winry to get going right where she had left off.

* * *

Al was looking very intently down the dusty dirt road they were walking on; they had to be getting close.

"I'm telling you, we should have taken a right at that last intersection."

"But it was south-east, I distinctly heard that man say south-east."

"I didn't hear an east." Noah folded her arms.

Al squinted into the distance and saw the road dip into a town, "HA! There it is."

Noah gaped.

He nudged her a little with his arm, "Don't look so surprised Mrs. Connelly."

"I wasn't surprised!"

"Uh-huh." Al sniggered

* * *

"That was just a look of relief. It's about time we got there." She covered smoothly.

Al decided not to comment.

Noah looked up and smiled, "And Mr. Connelly?"

"Hmmm?"

"We're going south."

Al's head shot up, "the trail must have turned a little."

"Uh-huh."

"The sea doesn't look as blue here…" Winry commented sadly.

Ed closed his eyes and imagined the ocean of their world; it always seemed to sparkle "You get used to it."

They sat together on a stone-wall, looking out over the rooftops that sloped down and into the coast.

"Color isn't such a horrible sacrifice." In truth, she was really just happy to be where she was and whom she was with to care much about the muted and dreary colors.

Winry leaned her head onto Ed's shoulder, "Do you think I could still be a mechanic here?"

Ed shrugged, hiding the joy of his dreams playing out, "I don't think anyone is ready yet for auto-mail, but you might be able to keep yourself busy with other things."

Winry brought up her left hand and turned it over to trace her palm. Oddly enough, it felt like she was missing her hand.

Ed watched her out of the corner of his eye and smiled, "the real thing not good enough for you?" he teased

"Hmm?"

Ed lifted a finger I tapped her palm.

"Oh… just missing it I guess."

"Miss not having a hand?" He quirked a brow

Winry put her hand down and smiled at Ed's eyes "I had just gotten attached to it,"

Hehehe, she loves me . , and then he decided to go back to the last subject, "You'll probably find a job faster than me," He picked at the stone; "I hope you don't mind going without bread for a while…"

Winry's face knotted up in confusion, "Wha—" she stopped to think, and then she laughed, "You worked at the bakery?"

"Yeah…"

"I think I heard you getting fired."

Figures.

Ed decided to keep the subject on track, "You could work with Noah for a while. She would probably love to teach you some of her songs." In fact, she had tried to teach Al and him a few… but after a while, she learned it was better that they didn't know them at all.

"Noah…" Winry whispered to herself, "You said she was like Rose? What did you call her?"

"A Reflection."

"It's so odd… to think that everyone has a twin in another world." She curled her fingers through her own hair, and played over the memory of what she had done to her own Reflection. Had she really killed someone? She pushed the thought away, not ready to face her guilt yet.

Ed seemed to make up his mind about something, and jumped down from the wall, "I think Al and Noah should be coming back today, would you feel up to waiting on the outside of town for them?"

Winry slid off the wall as well, slightly more reserved, "That's only if everything went alright… and wouldn't they be coming on the train?"

Ed closed his eyes and took a deep breath, "I have a feeling everything worked out, and if that means anything, they probably didn't have enough money for a train."

She smiled with Ed's mood, he seemed to be glowing, "feeling psychic?"

His teeth glinted with a smile, "Maybe…"

"Let's go then, we don't want to miss them."

* * *

"Is it just me, or is it getting further away?" Noah questioned the road,

"I wasn't going to mention anything… I thought it might just be a point of perspective or something." Al took a glance around them, making sure the landscape wasn't curving in any odd ways.

"We are getting closer though… aren't we?"

Al tried out a few different ways of looking at the town they were approaching, "If you turn your head a little to the right and look at out the corner of your eye, you can almost see a few windows…"

Noah tried without success, "Maybe we should just keep going without thinking about it,"

"Yeah." Al agreed.

* * *

Winry sifted the dirt into a small pile with her feet, "I'm guessing we'll be here for a while?"

Ed was lying down in a patch of grass with his hands behind his head, "it's not so bad…"

After she brought the pile to a peak she smashed it, "It would be better if I had a stick."

Ed opened one eye, "For what?"

"To draw in the dirt with," you could never get bored with a good stick.

A wide smile took over Ed's face, but Winry didn't notice. He slowly lifted himself up behind her and grabbed her around the waist, pulling her back down with him.

She eeped and struggled playfully.

Ed kissed her nose and she went still.

"Do you think Al would be mad if we lived in a house without him?" Ed looked to his sides suspiciously as if Al was listening, it was purely for show though, and to make Winry laugh more.

She straightened her face to force an overly serious look; "We would need money for that dear…" a smile broke through.

Ed tried to look stern as well, "Of course,"

"Get a room!" someone snickered as they passed by in the road.

Ed looked up and his eyes widened.

"Ed!" Al coughed, his eyes drifted to the person lying on top of his brother, "WINRY?"

Ed tried to get up as quickly as he could with Winry working on the same thing.

"Ed! I thought we agreed tha—"

Winry lunged at Al to hug him, "I missed you Al."

Al stood frozen and shocked. Once Winry pulled away and smiled, Al woke up to what was going on, "This is… this is _actually _Winry?" he rasped.

Ed nodded.

"How?"

Ed rubbed the back of his neck, "It's a long story…"

Noah slowly edged her way over to Winry and held out a hand to brush against her arm. She drew a sharp breath, "impossible… you're not even in your own body."

Winry stood gaping at Noah.

Noah brought her hand away from Winry and reached out to Ed. She smiled broadly, happier than she had been in a long time, "you're not missing anything."

Ed blushed; "I'm sorry…" he looked down.

Noah smirked up at Al, who returned the look, "You don't have to worry about that. I'm whole as well." She smiled with amusement, "Isn't that right Mr. Connelly?"

Al pulled off a perfect rich English man look, somewhat arrogant, barely polite, and made sure to add the extra touch of turning up his nose to who he was talking to "I believe so Mrs. Connelly," If only his accent was as good as his impersonation.

Nonetheless, both Noah and Al broke out laughing.

Ed and Winry exchanged a look.

"Don't look at me…" Ed held up his hands, "I've never seen Noah joke."

Al and Noah sobered.

"What she's trying to say is that we've found what we've been looking for."

"What I'm _trying _to say," Noah corrected, "Along with what Al said. Is that this world just might start feeling like home finally."

Winry sighed. Everything was moving so fast, but it all felt right, "Home…" she smiled into Ed's eyes, "That sounds nice…"

* * *

Winry Miller sat on a train heading towards a town called Resembool. After searching long and hard she had discovered that the only living relative she had left was an old woman who lived alone outside of town in the middle of farmlands. After waking up in the hospital, she had been told that her name was Winry Rockbell… but she had decided she couldn't take a name she couldn't remember. Instead she had decided to name herself Bell until her memories returned.

She starred out the window and watched a dozen different hills flash by. Did she want to remember? She could just start a new life, and everything would be fine. But she didn't feel right though, everything around her felt wrong. But she figured she would get used to it again, she had lived with it before, hadn't she? She thought that maybe if she remembered, everything would feel right again.

"Fancy meeting you again…" A man sat down in the cabin across from her and smirked, "Did you find the guy you were looking for?"

Bell frowned, "I'm sorry… but how do I know you?"

He sighed, "Forgotten so easily? I shouldn't be surprised, you didn't seem all that happy with me before you left."

Bell heaved a long breath, preparing herself for a shortened version of a speech she had worked out a few days ago, "I'm sorry, I recently had an accident, and lost most of my memory. If I knew you, I don't anymore," she looked down sadly.

"Oh dear! We're going to have to fix that, aren't we?" He leaned over to shake her hand, "I'm Edward Densing, and you are?"

She smiled, "Bell."

"Just Bell?"

"For now…"

Edward smiled and nodded, trying to be understanding, "Well… do you mind if I join you?"

Bell smiled, "No… I need more people in my life right now. I feel like I've lost a lot of people I never knew."

Edward got up to sit next to her, "Well, if it makes a difference, I feel like I know you." He scratched the back of his head, he wasn't used to odd feelings like that.

She smiled into his eyes, "I think it does…"

* * *

_A/N SOOooooo... What'd ya think? _


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